Greenhouse Gas Emissions in India’s Road Transport Sector

Abstract

India is one of the fastest growing major economies of the world. The transport sector of India is the third most GHG (Greenhouse gas) emitting sector, where the major contribution comes from the road transport sector. The chapter examines the trend of CO2 emission from transport sector (1970--2012) and trend of annual vehicle registration in India (2001--2012). The chapter also gives an account of the travel characteristics of India and explains the fleet models applied to obtain the age and technology distribution of vehicles on the road. Different methodologies adopted for GHG estimation can be explained via two independent approaches based on two sets of data such as fuel sold and vehicle kilometers traveled. The study analyzed the Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 methods for GHG emission estimation given by IPCC and segregates the studies done on India based on these approaches. Uncertainty in CO2 emission from different studies for Indian transport sector was high initially, but it has reduced in recent studies due to refinement in the input parameters, emission factors, and associated methodologies. The study addresses the gap in the estimation study and discusses the policies in India for reducing emissions from transport sector such as auto-fuel policy, shifting to four-stroke vehicles from two-stroke vehicles, policies for alternative fuels like CNG and biofuels, and incentives provided for the diffusion of electric vehicles in India.