The GHG Platform India (GHGPI) hosted a workshop to release the latest estimates of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and to discuss their trajectory and the role of states in the country’s ‘Net-Zero by 2070’ journey, on the 21^st of September 2022 in New Delhi.

GHGPI was established in 2015 as a collective civil society effort to provide an independent estimation and analysis of India’s GHG emissions across key sectors of Energy, Industry, Agriculture, Forest and Other Land Use (AFOLU), and Waste. The Platform’s intent, when starting off was to help unpack and understand the methodology followed in the national GHG inventory estimates. It has consistently placed emphasis on making all datasets of emissions estimates available for public use. The emissions database and related analyses produced by GHGPI are intended to help understand and track emission trends and help inform strategic decisions on GHG emission reduction.

As part of its latest efforts, GHGPI extended the time series of its database of India’s national and sub-national GHG emissions estimates for the period from 2005 to 2018.  ICLEI South Asia led development of estimates for the Waste sector, encompassing GHG emissions from municipal solid waste, domestic wastewater and industrial wastewater. ICLEI South Asia also developed a briefing paper highlighting opportunities and potential for emission reduction from the adoption of wastewater treatment technologies. Other Platform partners include the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (Industry sector lead), Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (Energy sector lead), Vasudha Foundation (AFOLU sector lead and the acts as the secretariat to the platform), World Resources Institute, and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.

The Platform’s continual efforts were well appreciated by experts in the field, especially both national and sub-national government representatives. Dr. J.R. Bhatt Advisor, Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Government of India (MoEFCC) and Mr. Ajay Raghava, Deputy Director, MoEFCC, noted that the GHGPI can help bridge data gaps in key sectors at the State level. Developing GHG emission estimates of this scale requires significant skills, resources and data and the granularity of GHGPI’s database can help States in assessing their performance and contribute to their efforts to develop state climate action plans. Mr. Raghava added that the findings should be passed on to the states so that they can use them internally in their planning process.

Experts at the workshop were of the consensus that the Platform’s emissions estimates and analyses have been able to speak better to the situation and the initiatives taking place on-ground across sectors. Further, GHGPI has sizeable datasets and research in place to appropriately inform decision-making and awareness among civil society, practitioners and policymakers.