Barriers and Prospects of Carbon Sequestration in India

Carbon sequestration is considered a leading technology for reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil-fuel based electricity generating power plants and could permit the continued use of coal and gas whilst meeting greenhouse gas targets. India will become the world's third largest emitter of CO2 by 2015. Considering the dependence of health of the Indian global economy, there is an imperative need to develop a global approach which could address the capturing and securely storing carbon dioxide emitted from an array of energy. Therefore technology such as carbon sequestration will deliver significant CO2 reductions in a timely fashion. Considerable energy is required for the capture, compression, transport and storage steps. With the availability of potential technical storage methods for carbon sequestration like forest, mineral and geological storage options with India, it would facilitate achieving stabilization goal in the near future. This paper examines the potential carbon sequestration options available in India and evaluates them with respect to their strengths, weakness, threats and future prospects.