India to be major CO2 emitter by '50

A new WEF report says India, China and Brazil would add maximum green house by '50, finds Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Jan 26, 2007, 23:19:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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A new reported released on Thursday at World Economic Forum at Davos had indicated that India, China and Brazil would be the world's biggest green house emitters by 2050 and had called for adopting renewable energy options to check the adverse impact of green house emissions on the climate.

India, China and Brazil would be the major contributors on two counts -- the booming economy and the rising population. By 2050, South Asia, including India, will have 25 per cent of the world's population. China will contribute about 16 per cent, though figures for Brazil are much less.

With population rising, the fossil fuel consumption will increase and the growing economy will lead to mammoth energy demands -- both contributing to CO2 emissions, the report state.

For the three countries, the report state, the energy needs would be primarily met through coal burning. It is estimated that coal reserves in the three countries will be consumed 20 per cent by 2030 and 40 per cent by 2050. That can lead to major environment hazards including water scarcity, lesser agriculture produce and health risks.

Asking the world leaders to wake up to the dangers of climate change, the report, Energy Revolution prepared by European Renewable Energy Council and Greenpeace International, predicted that the global temperature would rise by about 2 degrees in 2050 if the present trend of green house emissions continues.

The report states that if the government decides now the expected CO2 emissions can be reduced by half by 2050 by employing renewable energy sources to meet the energy demand of India, China and Brazil.

"Sun can provide 2,850 times more energy than we require. Each square meter of land with adequate sun can used to produce 1,700 MW of power every year," the report said, pointing that technologies are be adopted to tap solar energy. Similarly, the report provides many policy directions to tap other sources of renewable energy like bio-fuels.

India has reacted to the imminent danger to some extent. The ministry of Renewable and Non-Conventional Energy Sources has drafted a new bio-fuel policy for giving incentives for biofuels.

The policy is awaiting Cabinet approval. Also, schemes for exploiting wind energy have been implemented. The ministry of power is working on reducing emission levels and improving efficiency of coal based power plants.

Email Chetan Chauhan: chetan @hindustantimes.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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