Air pollution from India’s coal power plants causes around 100,000 premature deaths every year and yet there are no national emission standards for key pollutants like SO2 and NOx. Emission standards of India are far behind those of Chine, Australia, the EU and the USA. As mentioned, for SO2, NOx and mercury there are no prescribed emission standards in India. 

The report found that in 2011–2012, emissions from 111 coal-fired power plants in India, representing a generation capacity of 121 gigawatts (GW), resulted in 80,000 to 115,000 premature deaths, more than 20 million asthma cases and 160 million restricted activity days every year.

The largest impact of these emissions is felt over the states of Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, the Indo-Gangetic plain, and most of central-east India.

Overall, carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels have risen by 2.6 per cent from 2016 to 2018, the report said.

Another global study from Switzerland, held earlier this year, revealed that China and the US may be the largest producers of coal power, but power plants in India take the highest toll in the world when it comes to health as coal-fired power plants produce more than just carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming.

India needs to bring the country’s emission control at par with other leading countries so as to push forward the most advanced pollution control technologies, implement cost effective efficiency improvements and increase the use of safer and cleaner sources of electricity. 

India also needs to update its procedures of assessing environmental impact for existing and new plants to take into account the human health impact that’s being caused by coal emissions. There need to be measures to ensure that the norms and standards are actually adhered to. 

Indian coal is known to contain 30-50% ash, meaning that for every two units of coal burned, one unit of ash could be produced. So, a manufacturing or power producing unit has to burn more coal and in turn generate not only ash but also noxious gases, particulate matter and carbon emissions.

Coal washeries are units that reduce the ash content in coal through a mix of segregation, blending and washing techniques. These technologies are meant to allow the conservation and optimal use of coal reserves by improving the quality and efficiency of low grade, high ash Indian coal. Washery units set up in different locations were also meant to make improved coal available across manufacturing and industrial areas and thus reduce the reliance on long distance transportation of different grades of coal to units that needed them. Most importantly, washed coal would also provide high grade “coking” coal that is essential for the steel sector.

At the start of 2020, the Central government made an important set of changes to India’s coal sector through an ordinance and then amendments to the Coal Mines Special Provision Act, 2015. Through these, the government has expanded opportunities for privatised, commercial mining. Coal blocks can now be owned by private entities without any prior coal mining experience and any specified end use.

These big shifts have raised many questions about what the government hopes to achieve by commercialising coal in this era of intense competition from renewables in the electricity sector, the rising NPAs of thermal power plants (TPPs) and a massive global withdrawal from fossil fuel for climate and environmental reasons.

In March 2020, India went into an economic lockdown to manage the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the economy further shrunk and challenged by effects such as a fall in power demand, the government’s continued coal sector “reforms” have earned criticism even from the private sector. Who would be crazy enough to invest in coal now, was everyone’s question. In a shocking follow-up, the government has dangled a potentially dangerous carrot to investors in India’s coal blocks. It has done away with the regulation requiring power plants to use “washed” coal, by terming it an unnecessary cost on coal users.

The “washing” requirement was introduced in 1997, and promised the use of cleaner coal in power production. It was India’s only legitimate justification to extend the life of coal as a development fuel despite the climate crisis. Now, with this U-turn that allows private entities to dig out and burn low-grade coal to produce electricity, the Indian government stands exposed not only as an unreliable climate saviour but one that sacrifices the rights and safety of all its citizens to protect the interests of private coal mining and power generation.

Despite the known importance of coal washing to our coal dependent economy, this sector made up of medium and small-scale units (MSMEs) has mostly been a governance failure. After the nationalisation of coal in 1972-73, India’s washing capacity fell out of step with the massive increase in coal mining and the consequent exhaustion of our better coal reserves.

Indians are resigned to the use of coal for some more years because it is enmeshed in the country’s political economy of development. But in this context, the new notification’s permission to use low grade coal in power generation is dangerous and discriminatory. By denying – and refusing to remedy – the governance problems of coal use and allowing rogue coal power plants to bypass washeries, the environment ministry has put on the line the lives of the poorest people residing in the country’s coal enclaves.

Aishwarya Says:

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

If you are interested in participating in the same, do let me know.

Do follow me on Facebook, Twitter  Youtube and Instagram.

The copyright of this Article belongs exclusively to Ms. Aishwarya Sandeep. Reproduction of the same, without permission will amount to Copyright Infringement. Appropriate Legal Action under the Indian Laws will be taken.

If you would also like to contribute to my website, then do share your articles or poems at adv.aishwaryasandeep@gmail.com

We also have a Facebook Group Restarter Moms for Mothers or Women who would like to rejoin their careers post a career break or women who are enterpreneurs.