The Tribune shared the latest from the coal ministry and Ministry of Environment - where Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh and Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal today joined hands to solve the country’s power problems by putting degraded forest lands (between 55 to 60 per cent of the total forest land in the country) as “Go” areas for coal exploitationto achieve a production level pf 1.7 to 2 billion tonnes by 2030.

This by far has to be the most thoughtless decisions - leaving most of us really grasping for lack of reasoning, sustainability and equity. I am penning some thoughts on problems with coal, and how decisions like these must be questioned and dealt with.

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Coal comes with two major problems – while it literally powers all of present state India, and keeps India “shining” and us basking in all its light and growth..we must fully acknowledge the role of coal not just to india’s current “growth and development” but also to our personal lifestyles.

Problems with coal
1) CO2 emissions - Climate change
2) Externalities - social problems of coal to the local environment and communities

1) CO2 emissions - Climate change
No coal in india because  “coal is bad for climate change” is a self defeating argument in India . For reasons completely understandable. Even though coal is the single largest target for climate action, the argument holds no value in india for the following reasons
a) India’s per capita consumption of coal is one of the lowest in the world ??
b) To provide electricity to 2/3rd of Indias energy poor, COAL will have to continue to remain the major share in power generation growth – if we want to sustain indias “so called” growth and development –        since we don’t  have an alternative as cheap as coal for power generation.
c) Internationally coal plants are still getting sanctioned, forget coal being phased out. - thank god for some brave souls sometimes risking their lives, to stop a few new coal plants.

But the real problem with coal in India lies in the other problem with coal -

2) Externalities - social problems of coal to the local environment and communities
There are serious issues with coal , very very serious issues , in-fact horrifying – these issues are related to the social costs /externalities of coal on local environment and communities and their livelihoods – coal    affects water, agriculture, health, soil, rivers – everything the local communities depend on - gets affected. Leaving them worse than they already are.

To question coal in india, we have to question the social cost of mining and deforestation on local environment and communities this has to be our premise followed by climate change which will aggravate the problems that coal is already inflicting on the above communities.
I am sharing this because its important to understand - our approach to coal in india – it is different in developed countries and we (atleast I did) often take up the issue as it is looked upon in the global north. We have the same culprit but with a different crime to book for.

Without doubt The decision to go ahead and start de-foresting to dig out coal is the worst idea for the local communities.

The key questions to ask are -

Why do we need all this additional energy ? Who is this coal for ? What purpose is it solving and for who ?
It certainly not for the energy poor, they are the ones getting displaced and severely affected by this decision ?

2.  What is impact of this deforestation on local communities, local environment and livelihoods?
This must be measured, the followup plan must be openly shared.

3.  How much coal and how are we looking at extracting from this coal from these areas ? -
Open caste mining will be a disaster ? btw India does not have the resources for underground mining?

The key answer we must prepare for is -

What alternative are we suggesting, in my opinion efficiency is the key and in the long run RE. but with our current state of affairs we still need more power which will come from coal generation..
Which leaves me thinking – do we really need all this power, r we really operating in the right framework of things – leaving me disappointed with our obsession for growth and development and aping the western philosophy .

The only people who will really stop this from happening are the the local communities and tribal inhabiting those jungles – infact it has driven a few to take up arms and fight the state.. its already happening across india and we have to strengthen their voices.

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