Carbon footprint of India’s groundwater irrigation
India has an intricate nexus of groundwater irrigation, energy and climate. Subsidized electricity supply has led to unregulated groundwater pumping, causing a decrease in groundwater level and increase in carbon emissions. This complex nexus necessitates estimation of carbon emissions from groundwa...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Group
2020-05-01
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| Series: | Carbon Management |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17583004.2020.1750265 |
| _version_ | 1797678417466884096 |
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| author | Abhishek Rajan Kuhelika Ghosh Ananya Shah |
| author_facet | Abhishek Rajan Kuhelika Ghosh Ananya Shah |
| author_sort | Abhishek Rajan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | India has an intricate nexus of groundwater irrigation, energy and climate. Subsidized electricity supply has led to unregulated groundwater pumping, causing a decrease in groundwater level and increase in carbon emissions. This complex nexus necessitates estimation of carbon emissions from groundwater irrigation. The study uses actual pumping data on 20.5 million groundwater structures from the Fifth Minor Irrigation Census (reference year 2013–14) to estimate carbon emissions. The estimates show that groundwater irrigation emits 45.3–62.3 MMT of carbon annually, contributing 8–11% of India’s total carbon emission. This analysis shows deep tubewells have a huge carbon footprint, and their growing number is a serious environmental concern. Spatial analysis reveals India’s western and peninsular region, which houses 85% of the country’s over-exploited groundwater blocks, contributes most to carbon emission. Moreover, this region hosts 27 districts which are groundwater–energy–climate nexus hotspots, together accounting for 34% of carbon emissions from groundwater irrigation. Comparison with the previous estimate reveals that carbon emission from groundwater irrigation nearly doubled between 2000 and 2013. Findings of this study are vital to the discourse on the increasing environmental costs of groundwater pumping in the country and will contribute to carbon emission mitigation strategies. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T22:59:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-43b37021d3dc412fa3871c07fa223b86 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1758-3004 1758-3012 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T22:59:29Z |
| publishDate | 2020-05-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Carbon Management |
| spelling | doaj.art-43b37021d3dc412fa3871c07fa223b862023-09-21T15:09:06ZengTaylor & Francis GroupCarbon Management1758-30041758-30122020-05-0111326528010.1080/17583004.2020.17502651750265Carbon footprint of India’s groundwater irrigationAbhishek Rajan0Kuhelika Ghosh1Ananya Shah2IWMI-Tata Water Policy ProgramIWMI-Tata Water Policy ProgramInternational Water Management Institute, Colombo, Sri LankaIndia has an intricate nexus of groundwater irrigation, energy and climate. Subsidized electricity supply has led to unregulated groundwater pumping, causing a decrease in groundwater level and increase in carbon emissions. This complex nexus necessitates estimation of carbon emissions from groundwater irrigation. The study uses actual pumping data on 20.5 million groundwater structures from the Fifth Minor Irrigation Census (reference year 2013–14) to estimate carbon emissions. The estimates show that groundwater irrigation emits 45.3–62.3 MMT of carbon annually, contributing 8–11% of India’s total carbon emission. This analysis shows deep tubewells have a huge carbon footprint, and their growing number is a serious environmental concern. Spatial analysis reveals India’s western and peninsular region, which houses 85% of the country’s over-exploited groundwater blocks, contributes most to carbon emission. Moreover, this region hosts 27 districts which are groundwater–energy–climate nexus hotspots, together accounting for 34% of carbon emissions from groundwater irrigation. Comparison with the previous estimate reveals that carbon emission from groundwater irrigation nearly doubled between 2000 and 2013. Findings of this study are vital to the discourse on the increasing environmental costs of groundwater pumping in the country and will contribute to carbon emission mitigation strategies.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17583004.2020.1750265water–energy–climate nexusghg accountingcarbon emission |
| spellingShingle | Abhishek Rajan Kuhelika Ghosh Ananya Shah Carbon footprint of India’s groundwater irrigation Carbon Management water–energy–climate nexus ghg accounting carbon emission |
| title | Carbon footprint of India’s groundwater irrigation |
| title_full | Carbon footprint of India’s groundwater irrigation |
| title_fullStr | Carbon footprint of India’s groundwater irrigation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Carbon footprint of India’s groundwater irrigation |
| title_short | Carbon footprint of India’s groundwater irrigation |
| title_sort | carbon footprint of india s groundwater irrigation |
| topic | water–energy–climate nexus ghg accounting carbon emission |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17583004.2020.1750265 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT abhishekrajan carbonfootprintofindiasgroundwaterirrigation AT kuhelikaghosh carbonfootprintofindiasgroundwaterirrigation AT ananyashah carbonfootprintofindiasgroundwaterirrigation |