NEW DELHI | Sept 06, 2016: Greenpeace India today questioned the Centre's decision to sustain an "obsolete and polluting" coal industry, saying renewable energy holds the potential to meet the energy needs through clean options.
Noting that a large role in worsening global climate change, Greenpeace India asked the power sector to think beyond coal and stop sustaining the momentum to prop up a "dying industry".
"It is time we create new momentum for the future, instead of sustaining the momentum to prop up a dying industry. The sector needs to evolve if we have to keep pace with development.
"The Prime Minister has committed the country to ambitious renewable energy targets through the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) leading up to the Paris Agreement, and we should be focusing energy on how to meet these: that is future-friendly thinking, not this blinkered approach to continuing the coal glut at all costs," Greenpeace India campaigner, Sunil Dahiya said.
He said that due to coal-based power plants, more than a million hectares of forests are threatened, including tiger, elephant and leopard habitat while human elephant conflict is on the rise as close to 50 per cent of the human casualty happen in Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.
"According to Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal, we are already coal and power surplus. The government must therefore channelise their efforts into developing India's renewable energy potential instead of furthering new coal-based power.
"This is the only way to ensure a clean and constant supply of power without damaging public health and destroying forests, community livelihoods and wildlife. This is also critical in order to meet India's commitments on combating global climate change," Dahiya told reporters during an event organised in parellel to seminar on Coal, hosted by the Power Ministry.
A Greenpeace India finance briefing for investors said that coal companies have already incurred losses to the tune of Rs 2,400 crore due to shortage of water.
Noting there were health impacts due to this, the NGO said that 85,000-1,10,000 premature deaths have taken place due to air pollution while 625 million people have respiratory symptons, 8.4 million have chest discomforts and 170,000 have chronic bronchitis.
Greenpeace also said that the government was yet to come out with a transparent inviolate policy to protect rich forest areas from being cut down for mining coal.
The NGO said, through an RTI query, it had discovered that 417 out of 825 coal blocks fall on rivers, and mining these would endanger the country's fresh water sources and supply.
Greenpeace India's report 'Trashing Tigerland' also highlighted the threat posed by coal mining to more than a million hectares of forests, which include habitats of tigers, elephants and a whole host of other endangered species.
Another report 'Out of Sight' highlighted the hazardous levels of air pollution caused by thermal power plants in Delhi and other parts of northern India.
"Expanding the coal sector in India is an exercise in futility and will have massive detrimental effects on a huge cross section of society--from forest communities and farmers, to urban dwellers and power brokers in boardrooms," said Dahiya.
He asked the Power Ministry to focus on achieving the renewable energy targets and work towards fulfilling India's commitment towards the Paris Agreement.
"The organisation also called on the Environment Ministry to take swift action, stop giving more clearances to coal mines and thermal power plants, identify inviolate forests and implement strict emission standards for air pollution by existing power plants," it said.
(Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/)