Understanding the impact of lifestyle on individual carbon-footprint

According to the International Energy Agency, India is the fourth largest emitter of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions contributing about 5% of total emissions [1]. But it is also the home to a third of the world's poor. There also exists a large disparity in the living conditions and lifestyles of people living in the rural and urban India. Based on geographical location and lifestyle, an individual's contribution to the global carbon footprint has been estimated in this study. Data on consumption of goods and services resulting in GHG emissions was gathered at the household level through a door to door survey from few localities in Mumbai and rural areas within 100km of boundary. Equivalent carbon emission factors were used to estimate the carbon footprint from major sources like electricity, transport, cooking fuel and food for these areas. The average annual per capita carbon footprint was estimated to be 2.5 tons CO(2)e in the urban area and 0.85 tons CO(2)e in the rural area. For each of the areas (rural and urban), substantial variation in carbon footprint has also been observed across different socio-economic classes. Limitations: Indirect emissions, emissions related to work and public place were excluded. This study looked at the sectoral contribution (activity-wise, e.g. cooking, transportation etc.) as well as the rural-urban disparity in the individual carbon footprint; which was done for the first time in India. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativocommons.org/licenscs/hy-nc-nd/3.0/).