Coal, Climate & COP26 as seen from India - an Interview with Vikrant Srivastava
India’s mighty coal industry is a key concern in the run-up to COP26.
Coal India Limited is the largest coal-producing company in the world, with 272,445 employees, and on 23 January 2021, it produced 78.6% of India’s total power generation. The company’s website states that “CIL is a Maharatna company – a privileged status conferred by the Government of India to select state-owned enterprises in order to empower them to expand their operations and emerge as global giants.”
Photo with kind permission of Supratim Bhattacharjee The Curse of Coal, Jharia, India.
Against that background, COP26andbeyond interviewed Vikrant Srivastava, a climate activist and commentator on India’s coal industry. Vikrant was a delegate at the youth-led MOCK COP in 2020, and also works with YOUNGO and the ECOSOC Youth Forum.
Can you tell us a bit about your own background and activities for the environment and climate change?
I come from a farming family and grew up learning and adapting to nature. After completing my Masters in Environment Science I started learning more about climate change on the ground level. What I see is India facing climate change, malnutrition, inequality, poverty, ecological degradation, and many complex, interrelated challenges and it is clear many of our fundamental systems are broken. I started volunteering around our cities with different local NGOs and international organizations. I encouraged people to participate in this change which is affecting everyone's lives. Being an independent researcher and writer, I explained to people about the climate crisis and environment protection through writing workshops and public speaking. I am working with YOUNGO and co-leading goal 5 of Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) and with this I am pushing the government of India to establish a national focal point for ACE and to work towards net-zero emissions. I wrote a letter to our Prime Minister of India to implement it. My letter got approval from the competent authorities and was also forwarded further with a request for appropriate action.
India is seen by many as critically important to the success of COP26 . It was the first stop in Asia for COP26 President Alok Sharma in February 2021. India is both a massive user of coal, and also a world leader in developing solar power and renewables. Is that how you see it?
COP26 is considered significant as it will be the most important COP to take place after the landmark Paris Agreement and the first opportunity since then for nations to come together to review commitments and strengthen ambition. India is among the countries most affected by climate change yet coal demand and uses are increasing rapidly. India is ranked 5th among the most vulnerable 181 countries in the climate-change risk Index2020. India ranks 168th, alongside Ghana, out of 180 countries on the biennial Environmental Performance Index, produced by researchers at Yale and Columbia universities: in 2016, it ranked 141st.
India has to drop its plan of expanding coal if it really wants to become a leader.
Can you give us an idea of the scale of India’s reliance on coal for power generation, coal production and imports?
Indian coal is known to contain 30-50% ash, making it one of the most polluting coals in the world. So, a manufacturing or power-producing unit has to burn more coal, which releases toxic chemicals such as arsenic, barium, cadmium, nickel and lead, among others. Coal-fired power plants generate 72% of India’s electricity, and that shows how much we are dependent on coal. India is the second-largest producer and importer of coal in the world. Over the decades, the value of mineral production has also risen and, as of 2015-16, stands at around Rs 2.82trillion.
There are over 3,500 mining leases that are in force in the country across 23 states covering an area of 316,290.55 hectares. Of those, nearly 70% are in just five states. India is a party to the Paris Agreement and its commitments, but the nation has a large existing fleet of coal plants and there’s a mismatch between peak periods of energy demand and output from renewables.
What are India’s future plans for coal? Is it seen as part of India’s plans for economic recovery from COVID-19?
As Shirley Zhang, an analyst at Wood Mackenzie has stated, “The future of coal depends on Asian demand, which is still growing, and is offsetting the decline from the rest of the world over the next decade.” India is putting fossil fuel at the forefront of its strategy to turn the pandemic into economic opportunity. Coal India Limited is the single largest coal producer in the world and one of the largest corporate employers. In the next five years, it is going to open 55 new coal mines and expand at least 193 existing mines. Together, these two steps will ensure an increase of 400 million tons in coal production.
Coal India Limited has about 463 coal blocks with which the country can continue thermal power production for another 275 years. Shirley Zhang has said “India’s coal demand is growing up”. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year reinforced its commitment to coal as part of broader Covid-19 stimulus measures, and its plans included spending more than $6 billion on coal transport infrastructure and offering 50 mining blocks for an auction plan to revive an Indian economy hit by covid-19.
How does this compare with India’s commitment to deliver 450GW of renewable energy? by 2030, and its leadership of the International Solar Alliance?
India has promised 175 GW of renewable power by 2022 and at least 350 GW by 2030. At present, India’s overall installed renewable capacity is 87.66 GW and its installed solar power capacity is around 35 GW. It has projects planned which could lead India to become a Renewables superpower - projects like the 750 MW Solar Power plant in Riwa, Madhya Pradesh, and Kakrapar-3 Atomic Power Plant, plans for the creation of a 7,500 MW Solar Park, in the Northeast states of India with Solar potential of 62.33GW with additional potential reserves of almost 60,000 MW. The International Solar Alliance was initiated by India. But what about ‘Ditching Coal’, which has been responsible for over 0.3 degrees C of the 1-degree increase in Earth's temperatures since the late 1800s?
What impacts are coal use and climate change having on India at present, for example through air pollution or risks from glaciers melting in the Himalayas?
The “Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region” prepared by the Indian government’s own Union Ministry of Earth Sciences warns that the heatwave over India is projected to be 3 to 4 times higher, and the “average duration of heatwave events is also projected to approximately double.” Climate change is increasing the damage that cyclones like ‘Nisarga’ and ‘Amphan’ cause in several ways – by increasing sea surface temperatures that can make cyclones more powerful, increasing the rainfall intensity during the storm and rising sea levels.
The Hindu Kush Himalayan region, an area covering the high mountains chain of central, south and inner Asia, risks losing over 60% of its glaciers by 2100. The glaciers support 120 million people directly through irrigation systems and a total of 1.3 billion indirectly through river basins. The rapid changes in the temperature would mean increasing stress on India’s natural ecosystems, agricultural output, and freshwater resources, while also causing escalating damage to infrastructure. This ultimately means a serious impact on the country’s biodiversity, food, water and energy security, and public health. Coal is the biggest single source of carbon dioxide emissions from human activity. Air pollution from coal-burning is thought to create the largest health burdens in terms of heart and respiratory diseases.
India has a growing economy, a large population, a growing demand for energy – what are your hopes for the way it works out its priorities for the next decade?
We have to understand that dirty fuel won’t be good for the people and the planet. India is home to more than a billion people and has huge energy needs but these can be turned into an opportunity. It can make the “most attractive” market in the clean energy space, which would bring benefits for energy, employment and socio-cultural fabric. Indians still wait for “Green New Deal” a congressional goal that offers ways of tackling climate change and avoiding its worst effects while addressing wider social issues like financial imbalance.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the Climate Adaptation Summit in January 2021 that “We will not just meet our Paris Agreement targets but exceed them; We have promised ourselves that we will not just arrest environmental degradation but reverse it. We will not just create new capacities but make them an agent for global good.” How do you see that working out, and how important is a future policy on coal to delivering on these commitments?
At the Paris Agreement, the world decided to limit global warming to two degree Celsius below preindustrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees. But if the current greenhouse gas emission rates are sustained, the global average temperature is likely to rise by nearly 5°C, and possibly more, by the end of the twenty-first century. Even if all the commitments made under the 2015 Paris agreement are met, it is projected that global warming will exceed 3°C by the end of the century. Which is alarming!
India must end its reliance on polluting, financially volatile and costly fossil fuels and instead invest in clean, economically resilient solar power.