What is carbon intensity? – The Hindu

China has said it lowered its carbon intensity by 3.4% in 2024, missing its target of 3.9% Representative image.
| Photo Credit: Chris LeBoutillier/Unsplash

Carbon intensity is a useful way to measure how much carbon a particular sector is emitting and how it has increased or decreased over time.

Usually, sectors have their own ways to measure their growth. The steel sector may focus on the number of tonnes produced annually; the medical insurance sector may focus on the number of claims successfully fulfilled; and HR services may focus on how many hours of unproductive work they may have done away with.

The government of a country may also measure its own development by tracking, say, the GDP per capita (measured in US dollars).

In a world that is warming fast and desperately needs to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, carbon intensity adjusts those existing metrics to include the amount of carbon dioxide produced.

For example, the carbon intensity of the steel sector can be measured as the number of tonnes produced per tonne of carbon dioxide emitted. An entire country’s carbon intensity can be understood by dividing the growth in GDP per capita by the amount of carbon dioxide emitted. And so on.

Recently, China said it had lowered its carbon intensity by 3.4% in 2024, missing its target of 3.9%. Some economists have said its road ahead is difficult considering China has committed to have its carbon emissions peak before 2030.