CarbonWatch Citizen App
While national inventories of Carbon are often talked about at climate summits, individual action and awareness is what is needed for these inventories to be curbed, thereby leading us to carbon neutrality targets. For this emphasis on individual citizen-centric action, Chandigarh Administration commissioned the building of a Carbon foot printing tool.
● The carbon foot printing tool, that was eventually named 'CarbonWatch', was created as a mobile (Android and iOS) based App for distribution across the country.
● Lifestyle choices of an individual such as transportation, energy & water consumption etc. were s chosen that more than 95% of an individual's net carbon contribution could be calculated. In total, 6 major lifestyle categories were chosen.
● The questionnaire pertaining to these 6 categories and the app interface were kept simple and intuitive for maximum participation.
● All emissions were subsequently quantified in terms of 'tones of Carbon dioxide equivalent', so as to create a unified metric over a variety of emissions.
● Every citizen of the city could now measure their individual carbon footprint with the contextualization to local conditions.
● Chandigarh’s initiative became the first of its kind for any State or UT in India. It helped spawn similar carbon foot printing apps elsewhere.
● Chandigarh administration uses this to app sensitize the citizens and connect with them for environmental initiatives.
