India under fresh scrutiny as UN panel calls for shunning coal

FE Team | Published: April 08, 2022 22:18:16

DADRI (India) April 8 (AFP) : The mounds of jet-black coal shimmering under the afternoon sun at the Dadri power plant are a raw illustration of India's coal dependence-a habit that despite increasing pressure, the country is finding hard to kick.
Coal is vital for providing electricity to India's 1.4 billion citizens, making up 70 percent of the country's energy needs.
That reliance is in the spotlight after a warning by UN experts this week that to ensure a "liveable future", countries must move to greener energy sources much faster to reduce emissions.
Coal-based plants like the sprawling Dadri facility are attempting to make themselves cleaner, but their efforts are mostly in their infancy, and pale in comparison to their overall emission rate.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set ambitious goals for renewable energy development, aiming to increase non-fossil energy capacity to over double the current coal capacity by 2030.
But Harjeet Singh of the Fossil Fuel Non-proliferation Treaty Initiative said that while the cost of renewable energy has come down by up to 90 percent in the last decade, India still requires hundreds of billions of dollars upfront to make the transition.
"That kind of international support in terms of investments or concessional loans or grants is not coming through," he said.
Experts say coal will remain the dominant fuel in India for a long time to come, with its energy needs over the next 20 years set to rise faster than any other country in the world.
" Crossroads -
The UN report, released Monday, said current policies are leading the planet towards catastrophic temperature rises and that the world was at a "crossroads".
If the world's current oil, gas and coal infrastructure operate for their designed lifetime-without technology to capture and store carbon- capping global warming at the target of 1.5 degrees Celsius will be impossible, it said.