Increasing coal demand in India

Increasing demand of coal in India: reasons and related concerns

Increasing coal demand in India

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• The story: The demand for coal in India is expected to be between 1.3-1.5 billion tonnes by 2030. This was stated in the Economic Survey 2021-2022. In an environment of climate change, where India herself is taking the lead to contain emissions, this is a stark fact reflecting the truth that India cannot rapidly wean itself off of coal (and neither can China).
• Key points: The increase in demand is despite the push for renewable energy, which has been quite successful. This is an increase of 63% from the current (2019-2020) demand of 955.26 million tonnes.
• Reasons for increasing coal demand: Coal usage in India will increase as it plateaus in other parts of the world, including China, eventually. India’s push to domestic coal mining through both Coal India and opening up coal mining for private sector. Continued expansion of India’s economy is expected during 2022-2024, with annual average GDP growth of 7.4%. Iron and steel production uses coal and there are not many technologies to replace the fuel immediately.
• Concerns: Coal is one of the most abundantly found, and easily extracted, fossil fuels. The freeway to coal will raise the local pollution in the country. Coal- and lignite-based thermal power plants on an annual basis emit 1.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent/year. Implementation of new emission norms for coal-based thermal power plants on the ground has been inadequate. By afforesting about one-third the area of Delhi (about 1,50,000 hectares), the government claims reduction of just 0.04% CO2 emissions per annum means that in a densely populated country, including afforestation to be a route to Net Zero might not prove very promising.

1. Switching to renewable energy by coal companies was another effort towards turning into a low-carbon economy.
2. As on 31st March, 2021, the PSUs installed renewable capacity of 1,496 megawatts and during the next five years, it planned to install an additional 5,560 megawatts of renewable capacity with substantial carbon offset potential but this is just 1% of what the Prime Minister had committed at the recent Glasgow conference — 500 gigawatts of installed capacity through non-fossil fuels and 50% of its energy requirement from renewables by 2030.

• Summary: Use of coal in energy production and steel production is harmful for environment, and government should find alternate solutions for the same by investing in clean coal technologies. At the same time, this "green transition" is not proving to be cheap, or easy, for any nation.
• EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) What do you understand by ‘clean coal technologies? How it will contribute in the generation of renewable energy in India? (2) Explain the importance of access to sustainable sources of energy for poor countries like India. (3) Why is India not able to wean herself off of coal urgently? Explain.

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