Why the developing nations like India need strong capacity building efforts in greenhouse gases mitigation?

Abstract:

Today, India rubs shoulders with nations like USA and China for being the major shareholders in global greenhouse emissions and has more emissions than Russia! Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) has been proven as a reliable method to counter global warming and keep the 2ºC per year policy in check and is currently in the pilot stage in many developed nations. The three major requirements for CCUS are: manpower in diverse fields, implementation potential and capital. Keeping other social problems aside, India still has sufficient mankind in all spheres of research ranging from earth science, engineering, basic sciences, economy, policy making, regulation, public outreach etc. to successfully work on such challenges. India has leading academic institutions, research labs and universities in science and engineering. They also have a working power force in aspects like economy, policy making, regulation, public outreach etc. in various management institutes of repute. India, however, lacks in sufficient funding for advanced research and capacity building schemes to support projects of such scale. Deployment of facts and concepts on climate change need an approach of much greater scope than what is anticipated. The above workforces can put forth a clear picture about the various entities surrounding CCUS and provide sensible planning and implementation information through scientific research. CCUS is only possible when the direct anthropogenic emitters like fossil fuel plants modify their features to incorporate the methods associated with it. The rural population has to be educated in context to the safety of the storage sites. Above all, the Indian government must holistically divert funds for such programs and provide economic incentives to the industries for the industries. The bottom line is that India has been working in lots of aspects with not very clear cuts objectives. There are CO₂ capture technologies like amine scrubbing and membrane separation that is available and immense storage potential is also seen in the Gondwana coal fields and basalt rocks of the Deccan plateau. For successful working of such ideas, the confidence of a big section of public comprising of academicians, researchers, industrialists, sustainable energy workers, politicians etc. is required apart from the key workforce.