'India can achieve highest emission reduction in Asia'

Thimphu (Bhutan), Feb 8 , 2015: India can achieve the highest reduction in emission levels in Asia by 2050 by adopting agricultural practices that prevent the release of methane and nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere, a Japanese expert has said. "The reduction ratios of Japan, China, India, South Asia excluding India, and Small Island States in Oceania will be one percent, 26 percent, 33 percent, 15 percent and 25 percent respectively, indicating that India will have the largest reduction in Asia," Shuzo Nishioka told IANS on the sidelines of the just-concluded APN Second Science-Policy Dialogue, South Asia on 'Global Climate Change: Reducing Risk and Increasing Resilience' in the Bhutanese capital. The meet was organised by the Asia-Pacific Network (APN) for Global Change Research in collaboration with the Bhutanese National Environment Commission.. "To achieve the target of cutting global GHG emissions in half by 2050, mitigation measures in Asia are expected to play an important role. Asia should seize leap-frogging opportunities for low-carbon transition and we have outlined ten actions that can be taken by countries in the region," Nishioka, secretary general of Japan's International Research Network for Low Carbon Societies (LCS-Net), added, referring to the directions in the 'Realising Low Carbon Asia-Contribution of Ten Actions' report. The agriculture sector contributed 14.3 percent of global manmade greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2004, Nishioka quoted the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2007) as saying. The culprits in the agriculture sector are methane and nitrogen oxides. For example, fields that are continuously flooded during the entire cultivation period emit more methane than fields that are not flooded all the time. Nishioka said solutions like low carbon water management in rice paddies (mid-season drainage), highly efficient fertilizer application (split fertilization et al) and residue management are some of the components suggested in the report. Additionally, he said, the methane gas emitted from manure should be actively utilized as an energy source. Citing the IPCC study, Nishioka said with the introduction of low emission agricultural technology, GHG reductions will be achieved after 2020. The level of emissions in 2050 will be reduced to 2.3 GtCO2e (gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent) which is 91 percent of the level in 2005.