India is responsible for 0.08 degrees Celsius of warming from the 1850s through 2021, a new study estimated. India’s emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) from 1851-2021 have resulted in 0.04°C, 0.03°C and 0.006°C of global warming over pre-industrial levels, respectively.
Overall, the country ranks fifth among the top 10 contributors to warming, the research published in Scientific Data found. Researchers from Europe and the United States calculated national contributions to warming due to greenhouse gases such as CO2, CH4 and N2O since the 1850s.
“By focussing on the three gases that most countries include in their Nationally Determined Contributions, this dataset is uniquely positioned to informing climate policy and benchmarking,” Matthew Jones from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia, said in a statement.
“It should become a living resource for continually tracking contributions to climate change and, more importantly, how those are changing,” the expert added.Their analysis showed that CO2 is responsible for 1.11°C of warming compared to methane’s 0.41°C and nitrous oxide’s 0.08°C.
Further, the United States topped the list of countries, with a contribution of 0.28°C (17.3 per cent) of rise in temperature. China stood second with 0.20°C (12.3 per cent) of warming, followed by Russia’s 0.10°C (6.1 per cent), Brazil’s 0.08°C (4.9 per cent) and India’s 0.08°C (4.8 per cent).
Indonesia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan and Canada each contributed 0.03-0.05°C of warming. Since 2005, India climbed to the fifth spot from the 10th. China, too, rose to the second position after overtaking Russia. “Emissions from developed nations have contributed significantly to warming since the industrial revolution,” the researchers wrote in the paper.
Tracking national contributions to climate change, they added, can help understand the burden of responsibility carried by each country. It can also further inform the design of international policies that pursue equitable decarbonisation pathways.
The contribution of India, China and Brazil towards warming due to CH4 and N2O increased by 110 per cent, 56 per cent and 55 per cent, respectively, compared to CO2-related warming alone.
