The energy sector that includes electricity production, fuel combustion in industries, and transport continues to be the biggest contributor to India’s emissions. (File/Reuters) The energy sector that includes electricity production, fuel combustion in industries, and transport continues to be the biggest contributor to India’s emissions. (File/Reuters)

India’s total greenhouse gas emissions in 2010 was 2.13 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, rising 40 per cent from its 2000 levels, the latest official data shows. India reported this figure on Friday to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change as part of its first Biennial Update Report (BUR) which every country has to file.

The energy sector that includes electricity production, fuel combustion in industries, and transport continues to be the biggest contributor to India’s emissions, accounting for 71 per cent of the total. Industrial processes and product use contributed eight per cent, agriculture 18 per cent while waste sector contributed the remaining three percent, according to the BUR.

Forests and croplands, which absorb carbon dioxide, offset the total emissions by 12 per cent, thereby bringing down India’s net emissions to 1.88 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

India counted emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (NO2), Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) for calculating its total greenhouse gas emissions.

India is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the US. It becomes the fourth when European Union is considered as one block. But it has a much lower per capita emission as compared to the other countries.

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