Myplan8, an application to sensitize people about their carbon footprint and help reduce emissions, announced that Mumbai alone will emit 27.5 tons of carbon on December 31, 2022.
This is based on a calculated analysis that, at least 5,000 parties with an average of 50 people in Mumbai city, will be organized, on 31st December. The estimated number of pubs in Mumbai stands at around 3000, and around 2000 individuals will be organizing parties.
Average carbon footprint per person X No. of people attending X No. of parties = Total carbon footprint of new year celebration. A single event of such type can cause 5.5 tons each event
110 kgs X 50 X 5,000 = 2,75,00,000 kgs (1 ton = 1,000 kgs, making this 27,500 tons)
Koushik Sur, Co-founder, Myplan8, Green Fintech Start-up said, “This is just an estimation and the numbers could be humongous, considering Mumbaikar are party lovers. Now, when we looked at the key elements of an individual (while attending a party), a new outfit, pair of jeans, an impressive t-shirt and a pair of shoes will be adding 50-70 kgs for the one-time purchase and addition to his wardrobe, whereas a new dress and pair of heels will add 12- 15 kgs for a woman. While travelling to a party in a city like Mumbai, the average distance covered by an urban dweller is 25 km. Whether you take a private uber or your car, if it’s non-electric, the carbon footprint is in the range of 30 to 50 kgs.”
“Other aspects like a non-vegetarian meal and a bottle of wine, can lead to a carbon footprint of 5 to 10 kgs per person in an event. If we roughly calculate, an average of about 110 kgs per person would be the estimated carbon footprint. This can be neutralized by individuals, by planting 10 trees or more,” he further added.
Nidhi Mehra, Co-founder, Myplan8, Green Fintech Start-up elaborated, “5k events which is relatively a very small number is estimated to generate 27.5 K tons of carbon emissions. If that has to be multiplied by a city, 25 lakh tree plantations would be required to neutralize the carbon footprint. This looks like mission impossible; whereas an individual can easily plant 10 trees and attain net zero. It is the simple rule of divide and conquer. We have tried to capture this in the Myplan8 event calculator, which can help people understand their overall carbon emissions.”
“This calculation is basis the primary parameters, there are other aspects like water consumption, electricity, smoking, plastic use and a lot of other factors; this number could be even huge for a single city like Mumbai. If we consider the number of events happening across India, we may need to plant and nurture millions of trees just for a single night’s event, to offset carbon emissions,” he further added.