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India strives to reduce carbon emissions
India's total emission of carbon dioxide in 2004 was 1342 million tonnes, according to the Human Development Report recently released by the UNDP. This makes India the fourth largest emitter after USA, China and Russia. The report calls for a 20% cut by 2050 even as the developed nations cut their emissions by 80%.
Indian policy makers have been quick to react and have rejected the report's premises and recommendations on the grounds that India's per capita emissions is only 1.2 million tonnes as against 19.3 for USA, 15 for Canada, 13.4 for Russia and 10 for UK. India, therefore, wants per capital emission to be the basis for reductions.
The Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh has proposed that India and developing nations could agree that they would never exceed the per capital emissions of the industrialized countries. This implies that India will have to reduce carbon emissions even if it does not quite agree to the reduction percentage proposed by the UNDP report.
How can this be done even as India continues to grow at a scorching rate of around 9% per annum? By taking several much needed initiatives and readily adopting new energy efficient technologies.
Cleaner Coal Technologies
Power generation is the main source of CO2 emissions. Coal is the dominant fuel for power generation in India, accounting for an estimated 56.5% of power generation capacity. As coal is also likely to meet most of India's increased power generation - the Eleventh Five Year Plan ( 2007-2012) has proposed to add 72,000 MW of power generating capacity- emissions are expected to rise from 734 MT in 2004 to 1078 MT by 2015 and 1714MW by 2030. If India is to cut carbon emissions, it needs to adopt cleaner coal technologies such as Integrated Gasification combine cycle technology. Power plants can convert coal into cleaner burning fuel before combustion instead of directly burning coal.
More efficient power generation plants
Besides coal, India is increasingly relying on gas for power generation. Currently gas accounts for 8.7% of power generating capacity. Thanks to the discoveries of gas in the Krishna Godavari basin and imports of LNG through the terminals at Dahej, Kochi and Hazira, India is setting up new gas based combined cycle power plants. India, therefore, needs higher efficiency gas turbines. Higher efficiency means less fuel is used to generate electricity producing fewer emissions over the lifetime of the plant. GE's H system gas turbine combined cycle technology platforms, for example, are capable of delivering 60% efficiency.
Greater use of wind power solar photovoltaics, and renewable energies
India has tapped a range of renewable sources of energy including small hydro projects, solar, biomass gas, and urban industrial waste power. The total generating capacity of RES units amounted to 10,622 MW at the end of June 2007. Wind power dominates with an installed capacity of 7,231 MW making India the fourth largest wind power generating capacity in the world behind only Germany, Spain and USA. India has one of the largest broad spectrum programmes in renewable energy. In wind power alone, the government proposes a capacity addition of 10,500 MW during the 11th plan period.
Reduce power wastages through use of more efficient appliances
The Bureau of Energy Efficiency has been promoting the use of more energy efficient electrical devices such as compact flouroscent lamps(CFLs). Use of CFLs instead of the incandescent light bulbs can drastically reduce energy consumption in residential, commercial and office establishments.
Use of auto LPG
Auto LPG is a clean, high-octane and eco-friendly fuel. It is obtained from natural gas through fractionation and from crude oil through refining. It is a mixture of petroleum gases like propane and butane. Auto LPG has less impact on greenhouse emissions than any other fossil fuel when measured through the total fuel cycle. The higher energy content in this fuel results in a 10% reduction of CO2 emission compared to other fuels and substantially reduces air pollution caused by vehicular emissions.
Oil companies contribution
India's state owned oil exploration company, ONGC, is making all efforts to become carbon neutral in all its oilfield business. This implies that whatever greenhouse gases it is necessarily generating to produce crude oil and natural gas will be compensated by ONGC's environmental friendly measures such as eco-forestation. There are three main areas where ONGC could take substantive action to reduce carbon emissions. First, by ensuring that nothing escapes into the environment that can be captured and, ideally, used elsewhere. This includes stoppage of the deliberate venting of methane and carbon dioxide wherever possible. Second by improving energy efficiency through use energy generating equipment that make the best possible use of hydro carbon fuels and the heat that is a by-product of energy generation and by eliminating routine gas flaring - It is better to flare gas than vent it directly to the atmosphere, but it is still a waste of hydrocarbons.
That ONGC is serious about curbing carbon emissions is underlined by agreement it has reached with StatoilHydro for joint projects for carbon capture and storage, or CCS, and Indian projects that curb emissions.
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