Trend in GHG Emissions from Northeast and West Coast Regions of India

Climate change due to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) has emerged as a serious global environmental issue. An attempt has been made to assess the GHG emissions in two geographical regions of India i.e. the Northeast Region (NER) and the West coast Region (WCR) during the period of 1980-2005. The analysis reveals an increasing trend in GHG emissions from the study regions except for CH4, which shows a decreasing trend in Goa and Kerala. As far as state wise GHG emissions are concerned; Assam ranks first in CO2, CH4 and N2O emissions from the NER. Konkan ranks first in CO2 and CH4 emissions, while Kerala ranks first in N2O emissions representing the WCR. Analysis of the compounded annual growth rate reveals higher for the WCR in CO2 and CH4 emissions except N2O where the NER remains the highest. In order to find the association between GHG emissions and climatic response, the mean air temperature for 26 stations in both regions were subjected to trend analysis. The findings show warming trends in the mean air temperature over a majority of the stations indicating a possible role by increased GHGs. Further, the analysis reveals a positive correlation of population and GHG emissions significantly at 99% for both the regions. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.erem.63.1.2739