India’s per capita Greenhouse gas emissions below world average: UNEP

Tags: Environment

According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)report “Emissions Gap Report 2022: The Closing Window”, India’s per capita greenhouse gas emissions were far below the world’s average per capita greenhouse emission average (including land use, land-use change, and forestry—LULUCF) of 6.3 tCO2e (tonne carbon dioxide equivalent) in 2020.

The report released on 27 October 2022 said that India’s average greenhouse gas emission was 2.4 tCO2e (tonne carbon dioxide equivalent) in 2020.

Highest per capita emitter of greenhouse gasses 

The highest per capita emission was of the United States of America at 14 tCO2e, followed by 13 tCO2e in the Russian Federation, 9.7 tCO2e in China, about 7.5 tCO2e in Brazil and Indonesia, and 7.2 tCO2e in the European Union.

India’s contribution to historical cumulative CO2 emissions (excluding LULUCF) is three per cent, whereas the US and the EU have contributed 25 per cent and 17 per cent respectively to total fossil CO2 emissions from 1850 to 2019.

China contributed 13 per cent, the Russian Federation seven per cent, and Indonesia and Brazil one per cent each. Least developed countries contributed only 0.5 per cent to historical CO2 fossil fuel .

The report has been released by the UNEP on the eve of the UN Climate Change conference (COP27) in Egypt next month. The report said that the International community is still far off its Paris climate summit 2015  goal of “limiting global temperature rise to below 2 degree Celsius” to the pre industrial level . 

However, in absolute terms the largest emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world is China followed by the United States of America , India ,Russia and Japan .

United Nation Environment Programme (UNEP)

The United Nations Environment Programme was set up in 1972 after the United Nation Conference on Human Environment was held in Stockholm, Sweden in 1972.

In 1988 it set up Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) with World Meteorological Organisation

Headquarters : Nairobi, Kenya 

 Director: Inger Andersen