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India’s hidden greenhouse gas source?

Methane from India’s dams could boost the country’s official greenhouse emissions by 40 percent, said a new study.

According to a study by scientists from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, carbon-containing vegetation in Indian dams is causing an annual release of methane equivalent to 825 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

“I am quite positive that surface methane emission estimations are correctly estimated,” said study lead author Dr Ivan Lima. “I am confident that Indian dams might be altering atmospheric methane although not precisely to what extent.”

India’s carbon emissions were around 1,890 million tonnes in 2000, according to the World Resources Institute, a Washington-based environmental think-tank. But the country has never measured methane emissions from its 4,500 large dams and so such official estimates do not take these emissions into account.

India, whose economy has surged between eight and nine percent in recent years, currently contributes around four percent of global emissions due to rising use of fossil fuels. reuters

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