Here’s how can India achieve Carbon Neutrality by 2070

“By 2070, India will achieve the target of net-zero emissions”, said Narendra Modi last Monday. The significance of this statement is more important than we understand. The downsides of carbon for our environment are a lot and ever-increasing. But what is this carbon emission, lets look at it in more detail.

What are carbon emissions?

Carbon emission is the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Since greenhouse gas emissions are often calculated as carbon dioxide equivalents, they are often called “carbon emissions”. It is a result of both natural and human actions but, human sources are increasing at an accelerating rate which is a matter of concern.

Current scenario of these emissions
In the last 150 years, due to human activities, carbon emission has increased exponentially. The significant sources of carbon emission include the burning of fossil fuels for electricity and transportation. Then the next comes industries and all the pollution caused by them. Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture come from livestock such as cows, agricultural soils, and rice production is also responsible.

There are a lot of consequences due to these carbon emissions, like rising global temperature, decrease in the water supply as sediments and pollutants will be washed into drinking water sources, climate change which in turn result in altering weather for food crops. Due to these adversities, we must do something to reduce the carbon emission in our atmosphere. Let’s see what India has planned?

India’s plan to become zero carbon emmiter

India stands at the third position of the world’s largest greenhouse gases emitter. It’s the first time has India has set a goal for zero carbon. Achieving it by 2070 may look difficult, but it is not impossible. The futurist technologies that come under targets of 2030, like Green Hydrogen and Carbon capture storage, are going to play an important role. Other than that, the critical steps that India need to take are following:

· The transport sector must get shifted to electric from conventional sources.

· Power generation must get shifted from fossil fuel burning to solar based, wind-based and nuclear power generation.

· Also the energy consumption by industrial and manufacturing sector needs to be changed from use of coal to better alternatives.

Other countries plans

A growing number of governments are setting targets to end their contribution to global warming. More than a hundred countries have joined an alliance aiming for net zero emissions by 2050. This is aspirational and not always backed by domestic action.

Conclusion

To end dangerous overheating of the planet, humans need to stop putting more greenhouse gases into the air than we take out. But its easier said than done. A lot of difficulties will come on the way but we must do our best and don’t lose hope

Aditya Gupta is the writer of this article. Views expressed, and information provided belong solely to the author.