Climate Change and India

The critical factors determining the quality and reliability of a greenhouse gas inventory is directly dependent on the type of activity data and emission factor used. The quality of any activity data is related to the statistical reliability of the sampling done to ascertain the level of activity. Similarly, emission factors are more reliable if they represent country specific conditions. Keeping these concerns in view, an effort was made under the aegis of India’s Initial National Communication, to reduce uncertainty in GHG inventory estimates from India. Measurements were conducted to derive GHG emission factors for some key source categories that contribute significantly to the total national GHG inventory. These included determination of Net Calorific Values of different types of coal in India, CO2 emission coefficients for the cement manufacturing process, GHG emission from transport sector, CH4 from fugitive emissions in coal mining, N2O emission from nitric acid production, CH4 emissions from agricultural activities such as rice cultivation and enteric fermentation, and CH4 from solid waste management. The activity data, which have been closely scrutinized for reducing uncertainty, include allocation of fuel in the road transport sector and activities related to the land use and land cover change and forestry sector. This book synthesizes the sectoral papers contributed by participating experts and also suggests future activities that will strengthen the estimates further.