Unprecedented carbon dioxide emissions India has emitted carbon dioxide (CO2) at an unprecedented level and the power grid has become more carbon intensive, said Girish Palve, Assistant Director, Tamil Nadu Climate Change Project. A seminar on sustainable energy transition was held in Guindy, Chennai, on behalf of GSH India Limited. The seminar was held under the theme 'Encouraging Green Engineering' The projects of the Indian Energy Efficiency Bureau have avoided 1.29 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions from 2017 to 2023, saving Rs. 7.6 lakh crore. According to a report released by the United Nations, India has emitted 57,700 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2024, its highest ever. This is 7 percent more than the previous year. Coal-fired thermal power plants are responsible for more than 40 percent of this. Non-fossil energy capacity in the country has now reached half. However, our power infrastructure has become significantly more carbon intensive. The amount of carbon dioxide emitted per unit of electricity has increased from 0.703 tonnes to 0.727 tonnes. This is because coal-fired plants continue to operate at 65 to 90 percent, while solar and wind power plants operate at only 15 to 25 percent.
