India among biggest emitters of greenhouse gases: Study

WARSAW: India and China are among the world's biggest contributors to fossil fuel emissions with India's carbon dioxide discharge increasing by a whopping 7.7 per cent last year, a new study said today.

"Based on estimates of economic activity in 2013, emissions are set to rise 2.1 per cent in 2013 to reach 36 billion tonnes of CO2," the annual analysis by Global Carbon Project reported.

"The Global Carbon Budget reveals that the biggest contributors to fossil fuel emissions in 2012 were China (27 per cent), the United States (14 per cent), the European Union (10 per cent), and India (6 per cent)," the group of European scientists said.

Indian CO2 emissions increased by a whopping 7.7 per cent, with those from coal growing 10.2 per cent, said the report coinciding with the UN climate talks in Warsaw, the Polish capital.

The study, led by the UK's Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia, said Carbon dioxide is the principal greenhouse gas, and fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas - along with cement production account for nearly all its man-made emissions.

China, the world's number one carbon emitter, accounted for 70 per cent of the global increase in 2012. Chinese emissions grew 5.9 per cent in 2012, lower than the average of 7.9 per cent per year over the past decade. Consumption from renewable sources and hydropower in China grew by a quarter in 2012.