India is burning more coal to fuel its growth. The result: Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by the country's energy sector continued to rise, accounting for 71 per cent of the country's total emissions in 2007.

It was 67 per cent in the year 2000 and 62 per cent in 1994.
Fossil fuel combustion

New Delhi: Climate change will be an additional stress on Indian forests, especially in Upper Himalayan stretches, which are already subjected to multiple challenges including over-extraction, livestock grazing and human impact, a government report said here on Wednesday.

New Delhi India’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions rose 4.2 % to 1301.21 million tonne in 2000 compared with 1994 levels and the GHG profile for the year 2007 is estimated to be of the order of 1771.66 million tonne carbon dioxide equivalent.

These are the findings of the second national communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) prepared by the ministry of environment and forests, towards fulfillment of the reporting obligation under the convention. The first national communication was submitted to the UNFCCC Secretariat on June 22, 2004.

Rising temperatures are going to hit India hard and by the end of the century the mean temperature rise is expected to be between 3.5 and 4.3 degrees Celsius. This is bound to have a deleterious effect on wheat production and will also see a major increase in cases of malaria.

These are but a few of the alarming submissions made in India’s National Communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) covering a wide variety of sectors including water, agriculture, forestry, natural ecosystems, coastal regions and human health between 1961-2098 by using computer-generated models in which over 2,000 scientists provided inputs.

The main U.N.-appointed panel that regulates supply of global carbon offsets could this week decide whether to approve rules that would lead to the award of millions of CO2 credits to coal-fired power stations in developing countries, according to meeting agenda notes on the UNFCCC website.

The Executive Board (EB) of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) could this week decide whether to re-instate the methodology that developers use to calculate emission reductions made at coal power plants, a move which would enable them to request carbon credits.

India’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions rose 4.2 per cent to 1.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent compared with 1994 levels.

In 2007, the country’s GHG profile has been estimated at 1.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

These details are part of India’s Second National Communication report submitted to the UNFCCC Secretariat on GHG inventory.

The first communication was submitted to the UNFCCC Secretariat on June 22, 2004, towards the fulfilment of its obligation to furnishing information on implementation of the Convention.