Keeping tabs on carbon with an accounting system

Syllabus:
Conservation, Environmental Pollution and Degradation (GS3)

Source:
The Hindu,5/10/2023

Application: where to place?
When you are asked about,
Climate Polycrisis
Need for a National Carbon Accounting System
Ways to measure Carbon emissions
Significance of carbon accounting in the context of climate change
Can carbon accounting help governments monitor their progress towards meeting their climate goals?

Content

Climate ‘Polycrisis’

• It refers to the interconnected and compounding crises related to climate change that are affecting the planet not just in a few sectors but across several sectors and domains.
• It encompasses the physical impacts of climate change (rising temperatures, sea-level rise, and extreme weather events) and the social, economic, and political challenges that arise from these impacts.
• The very nature of a polycrisis means that tweaking one corner of the climate challenge leads to unexpected consequences elsewhere.

Climate Polycrisis in India: A case study

• Climate change is causing changes in precipitation patterns, leading to more frequent and severe droughts in many regions in India .
• Around 30 percent land area in India was under different degrees of drought in the first week of September,2023, according to the data by Drought Early Warning System (DEWS).

Drought Early Warning System(DEWS):India’s first real-time drought-monitoring platform run by IIT Gandhinagar’s Water and Climate Lab.

• Farmers are facing crop failures and a decrease in crop output, especially as evapotranspiration rates increase in the heat.
• The Standardized Soil Moisture Index (SSI), which represents soil moisture drought, shows many districts facing extreme stress.Maximum districts lie in the states of Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Karnataka.
• This grave condition of drought leads to water scarcity, which can have far-reaching impacts on Agriculture,Food Security,Energy production, and human and animal  health etc.

Climate polycrisis underscores the intricate web of climate change-related crises that impact different sectors and domains.

Carbon emissions are a significant contributor that exacerbates the physical and societal impacts of climate change.

Measurement as the first step

• Need to measure carbon emissions from that of individual citizens to that of the nation as a whole, including all that is in the flow.
• We can build an accounting system that helps us balance our carbon books using appropriate measurement systems.
• A national carbon accounting (NCA) system will bring the entire nation, starting from individuals and households, under one carbon accounting framework.

Carbon Accounting

• Carbon accounting is a way for companies to keep track of the carbon they are producing, removing, storing and offsetting. It helps companies keep carbon books alongside their financial books.
• Carbon accounting involves recognising, evaluating, and monitoring GHG emissions and their effects on ecosystems.
• The most commonly used standards for carbon accounting are Greenhouse Gases Protocol, ISO 14064, and IPCC Guidelines.

National Carbon Accounting (NCA)

Need for a National Carbon Accounting (NCA)

• An NCA will bring the concept of carbon books to the nation and will make it mandatory for businesses and individuals to declare/report their carbon inflows and outflows.
• It will make the circulation of carbon visible, and just as with financial accounting, other goods and services can be ‘financed’ using carbon surpluses, especially if there is convertibility between the carbon accounts and the rupee accounts.
• We will be able to set targets, make predictions about future emission reductions and track our progress against those goals.
• We can speculate about a future national carbon budget that helps us re-imagine the entire economy, including new technologies and new forms of collective action.
• There will be a parallel goal of a carbon GDP which countries will try to reduce.
• An NCA will help India meet its commitment to becoming net zero by 2070.
• If adopted globally,it will create new livelihoods and new forms of organizing economy and society.ie, An NCA is a polysolution to a polycrisis.

Govt initiatives to reduce Carbon Footprint

• India’s Updated NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions):As per the updated NDC, India now stands committed to reduce Emissions Intensity of its GDP by 45 percent by 2030, from 2005 level and achieve about 50 percent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030.
• National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC):The NAPCC identifies measures that promote development objectives while also yielding co-benefits for addressing climate change effectively.
• ‘Panchamrit’,a step towards achieving India’s Goal of Net Zero by 2070 announced at COP 26.
• Introduction of concept of mass movement for ‘LIFE’– ‘Lifestyle for Environment’ as a keyto combating climate change.

Way Forward

• Holistic Approach:Develop a holistic approach that takes into account the diverse perspectives and priorities of different stakeholders, ensuring resilience, equity, and justice.
• Carbon Infrastructure:Need for ‘carbon infrastructure’ that creates opportunities for a flourishing future carbon regime that takes the flows of carbon into account in the formulation of policy at every level(household, panchayat, district, State and country).
• Awareness Campaigns: Need to raise awareness about the importance of reducing carbon emissions through campaigns and education.
• Green Transportation:Need to promote green transportation like electric vehicles, public transportation, cycling .Electric vehicles hold the key to unleashing synergies between clean transport and low-carbon electricity.

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Related Topics

Some ‘Carbon’ Terms

1. Carbon Pricing:Method of putting a price on greenhouse gas emissions to encourage polluters to reduce the combustion of coal, oil, and gas, which are the primary drivers of climate change.
2. Carbon Leakage: Phenomenon where companies move their operations to countries with less stringent environmental regulations to avoid carbon pricing policies in their home country.
3. Carbon Footprint: Measure of the total greenhouse gas emissions caused by an individual, organization, event, or product expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).
4. Carbon Sequestration: Process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) in natural or artificial sinks such as forests, oceans, soil etc.
5. Carbon Tax:Direct pricing mechanism that sets a price on carbon by defining a tax rate on emissions.
6. Carbon Neutrality: Achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by balancing the amount of emitted greenhouse gases with an equivalent amount of offsetting or sequestration.
7. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS): Technology that captures carbon dioxide from industrial processes or power generation and stores it underground or in other long-term storage facilities.
8. Carbon Credits: Tradable permits that allow companies or countries to emit a certain amount of greenhouse gases.
9. Carbon Offsetting: Practice of compensating for one’s own greenhouse gas emissions by investing in projects that reduce or remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
10. Carbon Accounting:Process of measuring, reporting, and verifying greenhouse gas emissions and removals from human activities such as energy production, transportation, agriculture, forestry, and waste management.
11. Carbon Sink: Anything that absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases Eg:Plants,ocean

Reference

• https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.downtoearth.org.in/news/agriculture/amp/30-of-india-s-land-area-experiencing-different-degrees-of-drought-data-shows-91683
• https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.orfonline.org/research/global-standards-for-carbon-accounting-an-agenda-for-g20/

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Practice Question
The concept of National Carbon Accounting (NCA) is gaining prominence globally.Discuss the significance of NCA in the context of climate polycrisis. What are the benefits of NCA?