Vijay Jayaraj
India's newly elected government has announced contracts for an additional 12,800 megawatts (MW) of thermal power capacity (coal and gas), a move that runs counter to the global climate change agenda.
The announcement contrasts with India's previous commitments to shift away from fossil fuels and toward wind and solar energy. The decision, which comes on top of 28,400 megawatts of power projects already under construction, has reignited debate about the unfair burden on Western taxpayers.
India's energy demand is growing at an unprecedented rate. As the world's fastest-growing major economy, with a population of more than 1.4 billion, the country's thirst for power seems insatiable. The International Energy Agency predicts that India's energy demand will double by 2040, growing at 3% per year, three times the global average.
Given these factors, it is not surprising that India has decided to expand coal-fired power generation capacity. Coal remains the most accessible and economically viable option to meet huge energy needs in the short to medium term.
India has the world's fifth largest coal reserves, estimated at 319 billion tons. This domestic supply ensures energy security and reduces dependence on imports. Coal-fired power plants provide baseload power, ensuring a stable power supply that is critical to reliable power, something renewable energy cannot provide even when backed by batteries.
At the heart of India's coal expansion is a fundamental challenge: the urgent need to lift millions of people out of poverty. Despite significant progress in recent decades, India still faces widespread poverty. As of 2021, the World Bank estimates that 10% of India's population lives below the international poverty line of $2.15 a day.
The Indian government believes that rapid economic growth driven by affordable energy is the most effective way to improve the living standards of its vast population. From this perspective, expanding coal use is an important part of the national poverty reduction strategy.
Enough with energy being overpriced
The situation raises questions about the effectiveness of carbon taxes and other pricing mechanisms in many developed countries, including the United States, United Kingdom and Canada.
Energy-intensive industries such as manufacturing, mining and agriculture are vital to the economy. Measures that raise energy prices, such as carbon taxes, can stifle economic growth and competitiveness and reverse decades of economic progress.
The abuse of Western consumers by the climate-industrial complex obsessed with reducing CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels is unnecessary and completely unsupported by honest science. Furthermore, even if emissions reductions are achieved (which they often are not), they will be offset by increasing use of coal, oil and natural gas in developing countries such as India.
In the UK and Canada, carbon taxes have driven up energy costs, with low-income households particularly hurt as they spend a large portion of their income on necessities such as heating and electricity.
According to a 2023 Statistics Canada report, 18 per cent of the poorest households have trouble keeping their homes heated or cooled. Additionally, 2% of “Canadian households reported that someone at home needed medical care because the home was too hot or too cold.”
Likewise, the UK government's own research states that “around 13% of households in England are classified as fuel poor, compared with 20% in Scotland, 14% in Wales and 24% in Northern Ireland.”
“British Steel” said, “The average price faced by British steelmakers in 2024/25 is 66 pounds/MWh (megawatt hour), compared with 43 pounds/MWh in France and 50 pounds/MWh in Germany. (This means We are paying £37-50 million more for electricity this year than our European competitors, and this is likely to get worse as the UK government pushes to electrify steelmaking.
This could also soon become a reality in the United States if Washington continues to harm the energy industry by forcing a shift toward unreliable and expensive energy sources like wind, solar, and hydrogen.
It’s time to stop allowing Western taxpayers to be sacrificed on the altar of climate politics while countries like India and China burn vast amounts of fossil fuels for the benefit of their people.
This review was first published on Real Clear Markets on October 3, 2024.
Vijay Jayaraj is a scientific research assistant carbon monoxide2 allianceArlington, Virginia. he He holds a master's degree in environmental science from the University of East Anglia, UK, a postgraduate degree in energy management from Robert Gordon University, and a bachelor's degree in engineering from Anna University, India.
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