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Source Apportionment of Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere

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Greenhouse Gases: Sources, Sinks and Mitigation

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Abstract

All over the world, there has been a growing concern due to the increasing level of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In recent years, climate change impacts due to global warming have become one of the focal points of international environmental policy drive. With the increasing global warming trend, frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events, accelerating desertification, land degradation, and frequent drought events have become common in many places, whereas few areas have experienced extreme rainfall events. However, climate change impacts are not uniform and vary from one place to another depending on the level of vulnerability. The global community has acknowledged the challenges of climate change and has unanimously decided to increase international cooperation to combat climate change impacts universally. Under this scenario, it has become very important to identify and quantify all-important GHG emission sources so that appropriate action plans can be decided to prioritize emission reduction strategies. Source apportionment is a tool to identify and estimate the share of different sources towards prevailing GHG concentration levels. Assessment of the trend of GHG emission levels will help in identifying the fingerprints of these emissions sources. Qualified information on the GHG level will help the planner and policymaker to have a more accurate picture of the GHG emission scenario for a better GHG emission management strategy. The purpose of the present paper is to understand the various source factors of present and future GHG emissions, so that the efforts can be prioritized for evolving cost-effective GHG emission reduction approaches and tactics. The paper also highlights the various mechanism of source apportionment studies along with relative weightage of different sources in contributing to the observed global GHG emission levels.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, India

    Sanjoy Maji & Sirajuddin Ahmed

  2. Department of Biostatistics, St. Johns Medical College, Bangalore, India

    Santu Ghosh

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  1. Sanjoy Maji
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  2. Sirajuddin Ahmed
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  3. Santu Ghosh
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  1. Zakir Husain Delhi College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India

    Saurabh Sonwani

  2. Hindu College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India

    Pallavi Saxena

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Maji, S., Ahmed, S., Ghosh, S. (2022). Source Apportionment of Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere. In: Sonwani, S., Saxena, P. (eds) Greenhouse Gases: Sources, Sinks and Mitigation. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4482-5_2

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