The increasing atmospheric CO2 over India: Comparison to global trends

Abstract

Summary: Atmospheric CO2 is the key Greenhouse Gas in terms of its global warming potential and anthropogenic sources. Therefore, it is important to analyze the changes in the concentration of atmospheric CO2 to monitor regional and global climate change. Here, we use ground-based and satellite measurements for the 2002-2020 period to assess CO2 over India. The average CO2 trend over India is about 2.1 ppm/yr, and the highest trends are in agreement with the increase in total energy consumption during the period, and the highest trends are found in the areas of mines and refineries in the west and east India. The estimated CO2 trends for India are comparable to that of global tropical and mid-latitude regions. The increasing CO2 implies serious anthropogenic global warming and thus, calls for mitigation measures and continuous monitoring for timely policy interventions.

Keywords

• atmospheric science
• atmospheric observation
• environmental monitoring
• remote sensing