India Fossil-Fuel CO₂ Emissions

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India's 2006 total fossil-fuel CO₂ emissions rose 6.1% over the 2005 level to 412 million metric tons of carbon. From 1950 to 2006, India experienced dramatic growth in fossil-fuel CO₂ emissions averaging 5.8% per year and becoming the world's fourth largest fossil-fuel CO₂-emitting country. Indian total emissions from fossil-fuel consumption and cement production have more than doubled since 1990. Fossil-fuel emissions in India continue to result largely from coal burning with India being the world's third largest producer of coal. Coal contributed 87% of the emissions in 1950 and 70% in 2006; at the same time, the oil fraction increased from 11% to 21%. Indian emissions data reveal little impact from the oil price increases that affected emissions in the United States and western Europe so dramatically in the late 1970s and early 1980s. With the world's second largest population and over one billion people, India's per capita emission rate for 2006 of 0.37 metric tons of carbon is well below the global average (1.25) and the smallest per capita rate of any country with fossil-fuel CO₂ emissions exceeding 40 million metric tons of carbon.