Meeting carbon sink target

Meeting carbon sink target

Subject :Environment

Section: Climate Change

Context:

India updated its climate commitments. It said it would reduce the emissions intensity of its economy — emissions per unit of GDP—by45percentfrom2005levelsinsteadofthe33to 35per cent promised earlier. And that it would ensure that renewables formed at least 50 per cent — up from theoriginal40percent—of its total installed electricity generation capacity

The third target — a commitment to increase its carbon sink by 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030 through the creation of additional forest and tree cover—was left untouched. A year earlier too, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about India’s five-point “Panchamrit” action plan at the Glasgow climate meeting in 2021, there had been no mention of this third commitment.

The baseline year

The carbon sink target had not been defined precisely in 2015. India had committed “to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through additionalforestandtreecoverby2030”,but it had made no mention of the baseline year. That is, it did not say which year this additional2.5to3 billiontonnesCO2 equivalent of carbon sink would be measured against

Meanwhile, the rate of increase of carbon stock in India’s forests and tree cover has been showing a rising trend, even though the total carbon stock in 2021 was slightly less than what the FSI had projected just two years aga.

Carbon Sinks

• A carbon sink is any reservoir, natural or otherwise, that accumulates and stores some carbon-containing chemical compound for an indefinite period and thereby lowers the concentration of CO2 from the atmosphere.
• Globally, the two most important carbon sinks are vegetation and the ocean.
• Public awareness of the significance of CO2 sinks has grown since passage of the Kyoto Protocol, which promotes their use as a form of carbon offset.
• There are also different strategies used to enhance this process. Soil is an important carbon storage medium. Much of the organic carbon retained in agricultural areas has been depleted due to intensive farming.
• “Blue carbon” designates carbon that is fixed via the ocean ecosystems. Mangroves, salt marshes and seagrasses make up a majority of ocean plant life and store large quantities of carbon.
• Many efforts are being made to enhancing natural sequestration in soils and the oceans.
• In addition, a range of artificial sequestration initiatives are underway such as changed building construction materials, carbon capture and storage and geological sequestration.