Greenhouse gas emissions reductions under the landmark Paris climate agreement announced this week by 195 countries need to be “frontloaded” because the world’s three biggest emitters – the United States, China and India – could lead emissions growth over the next 30 years, according to a new report.
India’s emission growth is expected to “overwhelm” efforts to draw the same level of emissions from its population as the second largest emitter – China – by 2035, according to an extensive analysis by Alix Investments, a global investment and asset management firm, and the Economist Intelligence Unit, a London-based research firm.
India is the third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases behind the United States and China. In 2016, the total emissions of India, the world’s largest democracy, grew by 7.2 percent over the year before. China has grown its emissions by 9.8 percent in that same period.
The switch to net zero emissions, which the global community has agreed must be achieved by 2100, is considered necessary if the planet is to avoid dangerous and irreversible climate change, but some observers have cautioned that goal may be a long way off.
The gradual shifts needed to achieve net zero emissions, while not altogether out of reach, will likely require the increased use of carbon capture and storage, or carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. Carbon capture and storage is a process that is designed to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere through injection into underground reservoirs.
