India’s coal quandary

Thick grey dust hangs in the air and vast chasms are gouged into the land in the Indian coal hub of Singrauli, where giant machines scoop up dirty fuel to power the country’s growth while worsening its pollution blight.

The open-cast mines of Singrauli epitomise the economic and environmental dilemma faced by the world’s second-most populous nation, which led the opposition to phasing out coal at this month’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.

India’s resistance on the issue is driven by its desire to distribute the benefits of development more widely among its 1.3 billion people, some of whom still have no access to electricity.

But it comes at a heavy price.

In Singrauli, home to more than a dozen mines and coal-fired power stations, dark soot covers trees, houses, cars and even cows.

In scenes reminiscent of a dystopian movie, sticky sludge lines the roads, while trucks, trains and ropeway cars carry huge mounds of coal and spill black dust on passers-by.

Residents have little choice but to breathe in the acrid air that stings the eyes and throats.

“Our air, water and in fact the entire environment is heavily polluted. Even the cows look like buffaloes here,” said Sanjay Namdev, a labour union activist, as cranes and dumpers whirred behind him at a sprawling coal yard.

“But forget phasing out, you cannot even phase down coal in a country like India,” he told AFP. “Millions of people depend on coal for cheap electricity and I don’t see that stopping ever.”

A/C and fridges

As Asia’s third-biggest economy grows, its hunger for coal is mounting, with aspirational middle classes needing electricity to run their air conditioners and refrigerators. 

Coal consumption in India has already doubled in the last decade -- only China burns more -- and the fuel powers 70 percent of the country’s electricity grid.

With international pressure mounting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month announced India would aim to be carbon-neutral only by 2070 -- a decade after China and 20 years after the world’s other big emitters.