India GHG Emissions in 2023 Domain Breakup – EAI estimate
In 20230, the total emissions (emissions of all GHGs, in CO2eq) was 3.4 billion tons.
Now, most of us tend to think of thermal electricity, heating fuels or oil (fossil fuels) when we think of emissions. To a large extent, we are right – energy related emissions are in fact the largest for most parts of the world and for India – a bit over 75% for the latter.
But that still leaves a decent chunk – a quarter – for non-energy emissions.
What are the non-energy emissions? It is a long story, but they are all about emissions that come out outside of energy generation of use – so these are in domains such as agriculture, livestock metabolic emissions, methane emissions from landfills, and also interestingly industrial process emissions where typically CO2 is emitted as a result of a chemical reaction (think iron ore reduction by coke in the steel industry).
So, here’s my final summary estimate for India’s GHG emissions by energy & non-energy domains:
- Energy 76%
- Agri: 14%
- Emissions from industrial processes & product use: 7.5-8%
- Waste: 2.5%
Hope you found this useful!
One key source I used: Source: https://iced.niti.gov.in/climate-and-environment/ghg-emissions/economy-wide
If you have queries on this, please send a note to narsi@eai.in and I will try my best to help! – Narsi, EAI
Support data, references & other highlights
From a WRI report: Even globally, energy consumption is by far the biggest source of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for about 76% (almost exactly the same as India!) of emissions worldwide. The energy sector includes transportation, electricity and heat, buildings, manufacturing and construction, fugitive emissions and other fuel combustion. Globally, agri & livestock is about 11.5% (I had estimated 14% for India above, which is quite likely to be correct given is a more agrarian economy than the world “average”), process emissions 6.1%, waste, including landfills and wastewater about 3.3%, and land use, land-use change and forestry, such as deforestation 3.3%.
