Carbon Footprint analysis workshop in Panjim

For the first time on August 14 2010 people in Goa will have an opportunity to participate in Carbon Footprint Analysis (CFA) to be conducted by Scientist Sagar Dhara from Cerana Foundation, Hyderabad. The workshop will be held at Caritas Hall, St. Inez, Panjim. People those wish to participate must confirm their participation to any of the phone number: 9623770690, 9423883169, 9881191328, and 9923336347.

Participants are required to come with a notebook, pen and a calculator. The workshop is jointly organized and supported by Nature Environment Society and Transformations (NEST), Daily Pudhari, Goenchea Xetkarancho Ekvot (GXE), Dhulapi Nagrik Kriti Samiti (DNKS), and Goa Federation of Mines Affected People (GOAMAP).

This is a one day hands – on workshop meant to equip participants with the basic tools of how to compute carbon footprint for individuals and organizations and interpret the results.

Carbon footprint is an indicator of the amount of greenhouse gases produced by human activity and is expressed in kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2).

It is an indicator of the contribution a good or service, an individual, organization, a geographical area or a nation makes to global warming.

CFA is a very good method for raising public awareness about environmental issues as it allows the public to makes informed decisions about the priority areas that need to be addressed – both lifestyle and institutional change. CFA results can be easily understood by common people, and therefore it has gained public acceptability.

CFA is also a good educational tool as computations can be made with varying levels of complexity. The simpler versions can be used by secondary school children upwards.

CFA is a universal tool that can be applied to any product, person, organization or area anywhere in the world, and the results of such applications can be compared. CFA can be used to verify claims such as eco- friendly and sustainable development.

Several important policy issues can be better understood by understanding carbon footprint. A central part of the debate in the recent COP15 meet at Copenhagen and in the world revolves around historical and current per capita carbon footprints in developed and developing nations.

(Prabhakar Dhage)
Daily Pudhari