Climate change is one of the most significant sustainable development challenges facing the international community. It has implications not only for the health and well-being of the Earth’s ecosystems, but also for the economic enterprises and social livelihoods that we have built upon this base. The average global temperature is rising sharply. Humans are contributing to the greenhouse effect by emitting greenhouse gases (GHGs) that trap energy and warm the atmosphere. In fact, emission of Greenhouse Gases is an important indicator of Sustainable Development.

The combustion of fossil fuels (oil, natural gas and coal) to generate electricity for industries, households; and other human activities, such as transportation and deforestation, are the primary reasons for increased concentration of these gases in the atmosphere. The energy sector is responsible for about three-fourth of the carbon dioxide emissions, one-fifth of the methane emissions and a large quantity of nitrous oxide.

Creative responses based on research, shared knowledge and the involvement of people at all levels is required to meet the challenge posed by climate change. There are many functional projects focusing on GHG emission reduction from the industries but community level initiatives are lacking in this regard. The carbon footprint of the community could be measured and steps taken at the individual as well as community level to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions significantly.

Active participation of public in the improvement of the city, right from the stage of planning to implementation, can have far reaching benefits. Public-private partnerships are a good approach wherein government, private and civil society pool their resources and skills to address the urban environmental challenges.

A person’s carbon footprint is a representation of the effect he has on the climate in terms of the total amount of greenhouse gases he produces (measured in units of carbon dioxide). Many of our actions generate carbon emissions, which contribute to accelerating global warming and climate change. By measuring our carbon footprint, we could get a better sense of what our individual impact is and which parts of our lifestyle deserve the greatest attention. Armed with such information, we can take effective action more readily to shrink our carbon footprint, thereby minimizing our personal impact on the climate.

Measures could be taken to reduce one’s Carbon emission by concentrating on transportation, buildings, electricity and waste management. But for that, the foremost step is the assessment of our carbon footprint. For example, we can quantify the amount of carbon dioxide produced by transportation in the following manner.

We can reduce our carbon footprint by cutting down on our electricity requirement. Likewise, below mentioned are a few measures we can adopt to further reduce our GHG emissions.

All the above measures account for other benefits besides greenhouse gas reduction, viz. conservation of natural resources and cost savings among others. The more efficient use of energy will result in less money spent on energy by homeowners, schools, government agencies, and businesses. The money that would have been spent on energy could instead be spent on consumer goods, education, services, and products.