06-03-2021 | 13:34 PM
Chandigarh launched Carbon Watch App
Context
Chandigarh has been the first state or Union Territory in India to announce Carbon Watch, a smartphone application to measure an individual's carbon footprint. The carbon footprint is the cumulative volume of greenhouse gasses—primarily carbon dioxide—released to the environment by a single human operation.
Key Highlights
Chandigarh has been the first state or Union Territory in India to announce Carbon Watch, a smartphone application to measure an individual's carbon footprint.
The carbon footprint is the cumulative volume of greenhouse gasses—primarily carbon dioxide—released to the environment by a single human operation.
It helps people to be climate-smart citizens by allowing them to access their carbon footprint and providing them with measures to reduce their carbon footprint.
It also makes people aware of their lifestyle pollutants, their effects and potential counter-measures to reduce them.
About Carbon Footprint
Carbon Footprint refers to the GHG emission by an entity, event, product or person. It is expressed terms of the amount of carbon dioxide, or its equivalent of other GHGs, emitted. Most commonly used unit is CO2 equivalent. The carbon footprint seen as a subset of the ecological footprint.
When we compare various forms of energy generation: Nuclear, Hydro, Coal, Gas, Solar Cell, Peat and Wind generation technology, we find that Coal has the largest Carbon footprint among others. Coal is followed by Oil, Natural Gas and Geothermal Energy. The hydroelectric, wind, and nuclear power always produce the least CO2 per kilowatt-hour of any other electricity sources. That too in construction only and not in operation.
The Kyoto Protocol recognizes 6 GHGs and Carbon footprint considers all six of the Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gases viz. Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous oxide (N2O), Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).
