9.0 GHG MITIGATION OPTIONS, SINKS AND BARRIERS

9.1 Mitigation Options

The challenges of climate change mitigation involves diverse issues - economic, political, social and environmental. As the National GHG inventory for India shows, the major increase in GHG emissions over the next 20 years would be related to energy consumption. As India has abundant coal deposits, it is beyond doubt that coal will be the dominant source of energy. Therefore, energy efficiency measures in this sector remains our prime concern. Power generation in India is expected to reach a peak demand of 176 GW by 2012, and the total energy requirement will be 1058 billion units. Therefore, energy efficiency and increasing use of renewable energy or a move towards low carbon options are the two main measures that can greatly reduce GHG emissions. With the rising demand for energy, power generation specially coal fired power plants, will form a major share of capacity additions. Mitigation option in the power sector include clean coal technologies and renewable energy sources. Options such as bagasse-based co-generation and combined cycle plants generate lesser emissions per kWh of electricity than the conventional power generation system. With a vast rural population and several remote areas, renewable energy could be the means to clean energy.

Similarly, small hydro, wind and biomass-based power, though more expensive than conventional coal-based power plants, provides significant abatement oportunities. Options for energy efficiency in all sectors, shall however be selected on the basis of three main criteria viz.

a) consistency with national development priorities
b) relatively high level of energy conscription in the base activity; and
c) the relatively large GHG reduction potential offered by the abatement technology.

Specific abatement strategies for the energy sector include fiscal incentives and taxes, voluntary emissions reductions, green rating, and capacity building etc. Another area of importance from mitigation aspects in the power sector in the Indian context is the transmission and distribution losses, which is energy loss, and hence, emissions. There is considerable scope of reducing losses, which eventually translates into a large mitigation potential. Electricity demand in India has been increasing at an annual average of 8.8% during the past 35 years. Thermal Power accounts for most of this electricity generation. Its share in the total generation was 82% in 1997 and is expected to increase to 79% by 2015. Therefore, the use of using energy efficient appliances can also contribute a lot in indirect reduction of CO2 by way of reducing the demand of power consumption. Barriers however still exist that hinder adoption of electricity conservation and demand management in India. Two major categories of barriers are: a) Macro-level barrier - either policy induced or that which exists in the absence of appropriate policies and; b) Micro-level barriers - that related to the individual characteristics of consumers and the economic environment they face.

In the forestry sector, IPCC Second Assesment Report categorises three broad options viz.

· Conservation management: This strategy attempts to conserve the existing carbon storage capacity of forests by halting or slowing down forests deforestation and forests degradation.
· Storage management : This strategy attempts to increase carbon strategy in woody vegetation and soil in existing degraded forests, as well as to create new carbon sinks in areas where forests do not exists or have been cleared. These may be achieved by promoting natural regeneration, reforestation on deforested lands, aforrestation of non-forest lands and agro-forestry on crop and pastureland.
· Substitution management : This strategy attempts involves the replacement of fossil fuels by renewable fuelwood or other biomass products.

In the agriculture sector, methane emissions from rice cultivation remains the major contributor of GHG emissions. Other sources being enteric fermentation, manure management, agricultural soils etc. Abatement strategy in this sector in India can be achieved through the following:

· increasing the digestibility of animal feed by supplementing it with molasses.
· replacing open pit method of manure treatment with small scale digestors.
· using improved paddy varieties and draining fields frequently and;
· encouraging cultivation of rice varieties that emit less CH4 per unit of output.
· improving application efficiency of nitrogenous fertilizers etc.

The industrial sector, as the national inventory of GHG shows, major contribution came from energy intensive sectors like iron & steel, fertilizer, cement, aluminium, paper & pulp etc. Therefore, substantial mitigation option in the industrial process besides change of more efficient process methods include switching energy production options. A few option available for energy efficient options in power, industrial and domestic sector is given as follows:

Source: Teri, New Delhi.