NDA (II) 2016 General Ability Test · Question 128 of 150

Correct — A, electricity and heat production. India's power sector is overwhelmingly coal-fired, and coal is the most carbon-intensive fuel there is, so generating electricity releases far more carbon dioxide than any other use of fuel in the country. The sector series for India puts electricity and heat at about 696 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2015, against roughly 206 million tonnes for transport and 109 million tonnes for manufacturing industries and construction. That is not a narrow lead — power alone accounts for more than transport and industry combined, three times over.

• (b)Transport — Transport is the intuitive answer because tailpipes are the emissions people actually see, and it is indeed the second-largest and the fastest-growing of these categories. But at roughly 206 million tonnes in 2015 it was under a third of the power sector's figure, because India's vehicle fleet per person is still small while its electricity demand is enormous.
• (c)Manufacturing industries and constructions — Around 109 million tonnes in 2015 under this heading — the smallest of the three named sectors. The number looks low only because the emissions from the electricity that factories buy are counted at the power station, not at the factory; direct fuel burnt inside industry is what this line measures.
• (d)Others — A residual bucket covering agriculture, fishing, commercial and residential fuel use and the like. Each of these burns fuel on a much smaller scale than the power stations, so the residual cannot outrank the leading named sector.

Carbon dioxide from fuel consumption is counted where the fuel is actually burnt, which is why national inventories split it by sector. In India the split is dominated by coal-fired electricity generation, followed at a distance by transport running on petrol and diesel, then by direct fuel burning inside industry, then by buildings and the residual categories. The ordering follows from the fuel mix: coal supplies the bulk of generation, and coal emits appreciably more carbon dioxide per unit of energy than oil, which in turn emits more than natural gas.

The trap here is a bookkeeping one. Industry feels as though it should top the list, but the emissions caused by industrial electricity demand are attributed to the power station that supplied it, not to the factory that consumed it. Once you know that convention, the answer follows without any numbers. As of the September 2016 exam this ranking was already firmly established, and it has not changed since — the 2016 figures were about 714 million tonnes for electricity and heat against 214 million for transport, and power has remained India's largest emitting sector through the decade even as renewable capacity has grown sharply, because absolute electricity demand grew alongside it.

• India's emissions from electricity and heat were about 696 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2015, roughly 3.4 times the transport figure of 206 million tonnes.
• Manufacturing industries and construction accounted for about 109 million tonnes in 2015, less than buildings at 171 million tonnes.
• Emissions are attributed to the point of combustion, so electricity used by industry is booked to the power sector, not to industry.
• Coal supplies the majority of India's electricity generation, and coal is the most carbon-intensive of the fossil fuels per unit of energy released.

• Marking transport because vehicle exhaust is visible; the power sector emits several times more, out of sight at the plant.
• Confusing emissions from fuel consumption with total greenhouse gas emissions, which also count agriculture, waste and land use.
• Assuming India's growing renewable capacity has already displaced coal from the top of this list — it has not, because demand grew too.

Climate and energy items in NDA are usually one-line rankings or 'which is largest' questions, and they reward knowing the shape of the data — which sector, which fuel, which gas dominates — rather than any precise figure.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following fuels releases the most carbon dioxide for the same amount of energy produced?

  • (a)Natural gas
  • (b)Petrol
  • (c)Diesel
  • (d)Coal

  Answer(d) Coal — it has the highest carbon content per unit of energy, which is why a coal-heavy power sector dominates India's emissions.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In a national greenhouse gas inventory, the carbon dioxide released to generate electricity that a steel plant buys from the grid is attributed to

  • (a)the steel plant, as the final consumer
  • (b)the power station where the fuel was burnt
  • (c)both, counted half each
  • (d)neither, since it is traded energy

  Answer(b) the power station where the fuel was burnt — inventories count emissions at the point of combustion, which is why industry's line looks small.