Increase in number of coal plants may hamper India’s climate goals

LOSANGELES: India will not be able to meet its Paris climate agreement commitments in the coming years if the country goes ahead with its plans to build nearly 370 coal-fired power plants, US researchers warn.

India has pledged to the international community to reduce its emissions intensity - the amount of carbon dioxide released per unit of gross domestic product - by as much as 35 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030, and to increase the percentage of renewable energy in its power grids.

The construction of 65 gigawatts worth of coal-burning generation with an additional 178 gigawatts in the planning stages would make it nearly impossible for India to meet those climate promises, the researchers said.

“The country has vowed to curtail its use of fossil fuels in electricity generation, but it has also put itself on a path to building hundreds of coal-burning power plants to feed its growing industrial economy,” said Steve Davis, professor at the University of California, Irvine.

By developing all of the planned coal-fired capacity, India would increase the share of fossil fuels in its energy budget by 123 per cent, researchers said.

If the country also met its goal to produce at least 40 per cent of their power from non-fossil sources in 2030, the total power being generated would greatly exceed its own projected future electricity demand, according to the new study.

“Looking closely at all of India’s active coal plant proposals, we found they are already incompatible with the country’s international climate commitments and are simply unneeded,” said Christine Shearer, senior researcher at CoalSwarm, a research institute in the US.