India's carbon dioxide emissions have fallen for the first time in four decades partly as a result of the country's coronavirus lockdown, a study published on Tuesday said.
Lower electricity demand and competition from renewables weakened the demand for fossil fuels over the past 12 months even before the pandemic hit India, the analysis by British environmental website Carbon Brief said.
However, it was the sudden lockdown from March 25 that steepened the fall in emissions, it said.
Indian CO2 emissions fell by an estimated 15 per cent in March and are likely to have fallen 30 per cent in April, according to the study.
"Emissions fell by around 1 per cent in the fiscal year ending March 2020, as coal consumption fell and oil consumption flatlined," the research said.
The decline in demand was driven by coal-fired power generation units, explaining the drop in emissions, the study said. Coal-fired generation was down 15 per cent in March and 31 per cent in the first three weeks of April.
The data also showed that the demand for coal has been weakening over the past year - coal deliveries fell by 2 per cent, signaling the first year-on-year fall in consumption in two decades.
Oil consumption also fell 18 per cent year-on-year in March 2020 as a result of the lockdown.
Meanwhile, energy generation from renewables increased over the year. The use of renewable energy increased by 6.4 per cent in March and saw a slight decrease of 1.4 per cent in the first three weeks of April.
Pollution levels have dipped across the country during the lockdown.
India's annual death toll would fall by 650,000 were the clean air to be maintained, another study by researchers from Indian and Chinese universities found.
The restriction of activities during the first month of lockdown saw a 52-per-cent average reduction in excessive health risk for particulate matter across India. The study also estimated a four-fold decline in health risks associated with other pollutants.
Over the past weeks, Indians have been stunned by the sight of Himalayan mountain ranges, visible from hundreds of kilometres away as pollution levels dropped due to the lockdown.
It has also resulted in cleaner rivers in the country. Local media have shown images of the Yamuna and the Ganges, both holy Hindu rivers, in a significantly cleaner state than before the shutdown.
