TWIST IN THE TALE

India presses ahead with coal as China cuts permits ahead of COP29

- S DINAKAR

China began 2024 by cutting permits for coal-fired generators for the first time. India, on the other hand, is doubling up on the fuel.

Until two years back, it was the reverse: India was pushing renewables and freezing new coal projects while China was pressing the pedal on coal.

As world leaders prepare their dossiers on climate targets to present at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, next month, India, a leading global voice for emissions control, may need to reassess its commitments made at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021. The world's fastest growing major economy embarked on a drive for coal-fired generators to make up for slowing growth in renewable installations.

Unintended consequences

India's move towards new coal-fired plants, an affordable and dependable source of energy, and incessant delays in reducing sulphur emissions from the existing units, have had unintended consequences. Some of India's COP26 targets were diluted in 2022, according to an oil ministry report.

For instance, India dropped the target on reduction of cumulative emissions by 1 billion tonnes by 2030, an offshoot of the slow progress in renewable installations, averaging 13 to 15 gigawatts annually, less than 3 per cent of global annual renewable capacity additions in 2023, according to Renewables 2024, an October report by the International Energy Agency.

Global additions increased by 60 per cent last year from a year earlier, led by China, while India's growth needle hardly budged.