From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: Carbon footprints, Ecological footprints
Mains level: Not Much
Chandigarh became the first state or UT in India to launch Carbon Watch, a mobile application to assess the carbon footprint of an individual.
Carbon Footprint
- A carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual, event, organization, service, or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent.
- It corresponds to the whole amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) produced to, directly and indirectly; support a person’s lifestyle and activities.
- Carbon footprints are usually measured in equivalent tons of CO2, during the period of a year, and they can be associated with an individual, an organization, a product or an event, among others.
- The GHGs whose sum results in a carbon footprint can come from the production and consumption of fossil fuels, food, manufactured goods, materials, roads or transportation.
Note: An ecological footprint, as explained earlier compares the total resources people consume with the land and water area that is needed to replace those resources. A carbon footprint also deals with resource usage but focuses strictly on the greenhouse gases released due to burning of fossil fuels.
How does the app Carbon Watch work?
- As a person downloads the application, they will need to fill details in four parts — Water, Energy, Waste Generation and Transport (Vehicular movement).
- In the category of Water, the person will be required to inform about the consumption of water.
- In the Energy category, the details regarding the electricity units consumed every month at the house, monthly bill etc and usage of solar energy will have to be furnished.
- In the Waste category, the individual will need to inform about the waste generated on their part and their family.
- In the transport section, the individual will have to inform about the mode of transport used by four-wheeler, two-wheeler or bicycle.
Try this PYQ:
As a result of their annual survey, the National Geographic Society and an international polling firm GlobeScan gave India top rank in Greendex 2009 score. What is this score?
(a) It is a measure of efforts made by different countries in adopting technologies for reducing the carbon footprint
(b) It is a measure of environmentally sustainable consumer behavior in different countries
(c) It is an assessment of programs/schemes undertaken by different countries for improving the conservation of natural resources
(d) It is an index showing the volume of carbon credits sold by different countries
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