What is a carbon footprint?
A plain guide to what a carbon footprint is, what it includes, how big the average Indian footprint is, and what the number can and cannot tell you.
Where do India's emissions come from?
India's official inventory gives a picture of where the national footprint comes from.
| Sector | Share of India's emissions, 2022 (excluding land use and forests) |
|---|---|
| Energy (electricity, transport, industry fuel, buildings) | 73.4% |
| Agriculture (livestock, rice, fertilisers) | 15.0% |
| Industrial processes and product use (cement, steel, chemicals) | 8.9% |
| Waste (landfills, wastewater) | 2.8% |
Source: India's First Biennial Transparency Report (BTR-1) to the UNFCCC, MoEFCC.
By gas, carbon dioxide made up 78.9% of India's 2022 emissions, methane 14.8% and nitrous oxide 3.7%, with other gases at 1.8% (BTR-1). In the earlier inventory for 2020, electricity production alone was the single largest category, at about 39% of national emissions (India's Fourth Biennial Update Report, BUR-4, MoEFCC, December 2024).
Sources: IPCC AR6 Working Group III, Annex I: Glossary (2022); IPCC AR6 Working Group III, Summary for Policymakers (2022); Our World in Data, CO2 emissions per capita (Global Carbon Budget 2025); Our World in Data, India CO2 country profile; MoEFCC, India First Biennial Transparency Report (BTR-1) to the UNFCCC; MoEFCC, India Fourth Biennial Update Report (BUR-4), December 2024; 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Volume 2, Chapter 1; GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (Revised Edition); SEBI circular on Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting, May 2021; Central Electricity Authority, CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian Power Sector, User Guide Version 22.0 (August 2026)
This article was prepared with AI assistance and checked by the GreenEye team against the sources shown in each section.
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