Climate change and India’s initiative

‘WARMING of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level’ – observed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its recent publication. Greenhouse gases (GHGs) released due to human activities are the main cause of global warming and climate change, which is the most serious threat that human civilization has ever faced. Carbon dioxide produced from burning of fossil fuels, is the principle GHG. 

 The major part of India’s emissions comes from fossil fuel-related CO2 emissions. A World Bank report  has identified six countries, namely, USA, China, the European Union, Russian Federation, India and Japan as emitters of the largest quantity of CO2 into the atmosphere. India generates about 1.35 bt of CO2 which is nearly 5% of the total world emission. 

India, a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol (see Note 1), has already undertaken various measures following the objectives of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). These are almost in every sector like coal, oil, gas, power generation, transport, agriculture, industrial production and residential. While in most of the above areas stress has been imparted on increasing energy efficiency and conservation, it is felt that reduction in consumption in various fields and rationalization of uses of energy-guzzling systems would also substantially contribute to our country’s efforts in reducing GHGs and mitigating global warming.

Role of construction industry in climate change 

The construction industry is one of the major sources of pollution. Construction-related activities account for quite a large portion of CO2 emissions. Contribution of the building industry to global warming can no longer be ignored.  Modern buildings consume energy in a number of ways. Energy consumption in buildings occurs in five phases. The first phase corresponds to the manufacturing of building materials and components, which is termed as embodied energy. The second and third phases correspond to the energy used to transport materials from production plants to the building site and the energy used in the actual construction of the building, which is respectively referred to as grey energy and induced energy. Fourthly, energy is consumed at the operational phase, which corresponds to the running of the building when it is occupied. Finally, energy is consumed in the demolition process of buildings as well as in the recycling of their parts, when this is promoted . We have found that the cost-effective and alternate construction technologies, which apart from reducing cost of construction by reduction of quantity of building mate-rials through improved and innovative techniques or use of alternate low-energy consuming materials, can play a great role in reduction of CO2 emission and thus help in the protection of the environment.