Coal versus Environment Debate

The past and present government (despite huge potential revenues) have resorted to allocate coal mines on such a premise that the coal blocks of the country are just waiting to be exploited. Is the coal rush is based on some artificially inflated demand? Won’t the coal burnt put huge amount of toxic chemical in the environment? This debate is based on these arguments:

• Both coal mining and coal burning have destroyed the environment; deprived people of their livelihoods and have spread toxic pollution poisoning the food chain systems that sustain life.
• Thus, being a responsible member of the international community, India should do everything that contains use of coal and promotes clean technology.
• Indian coal is of poor quality, and there is a need to cover up the deficit with better technology and efficiency but most plants in the country have lacked that.
• Generating power with more and more coal will put pressure on other resources such as water also.

None of the above arguments are baseless. There is a need to develop integrated policies that would reduce the pressure on natural resources and minimise the amount of pollution. Further:

• The focus needs to be on energy efficiency and environmental friendly technologies such as renewable energy.
• There is need for efficient demand management. While the coal based power plants should meet the base load demand, additional demand should be increasingly met by solar and wind power.

Thus, there is a need to include efficiency improvements in coal and the electricity sectors, and make a decisive shift in favour of renewable sources of energy. For example, on average, the Indian power plants using India’s coal supply consume about 0.70 kg of coal to generate a kWh, whereas United States thermal power plants consume about 0.45 kg of coal per kWh.