India submitted its first Biennial Update Report (BUR) on January 22, to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to fulfill the reporting obligation under the Convention. As per the provisions of the Convention, countries need to periodically provide information in the form of their National Communication. BUR contains national GHG inventory of India for the year 2010, prepared in accordance with the guidelines of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The inventory covers six greenhouse gases and five categories.

As per BUR, India emitted 2,136.84 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gases in 2010. Energy sector was the prime contributor to emissions and with 71% of total emissions in 2010. A reduction of emission intensity of GDP by about 12% between 2005 and 2010 has been achieved against our voluntary pledge to reduce the emission intensity of its GDP by 2025 per cent by 2020, compared with the 2005 level.

BUR showcases a range of climate-friendly measures initiated through eight National Missions under National Action Plan on Climate Change and other programs. At the national level, 137 and at state level 286 policies and measures relevant to climate change have been mapped in the report on non-exhaustive basis. BUR has different sections elaborating various aspects on climate change in the country. BUR has been prepared by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change under its NATCOM project funded by Global Environment Facility (GEF) through UNDP.

India had submitted its first national communication in 2004 and second national communication in 2012. The UNFCCC in its sixteenth session of conference of Parties (COP) had decided that the developing countries will submit updates to their national communication on biennial basis in the form of Biennial Update Report. The scope of a BUR is to provide an update to the latest National Communication submitted by the country to the UNFCCC.