India Greatly Increasing Emissions With New Coal Power Plants

With a population now approaching 1.5 billion power-hungry people, India has always suffered from a lack of power and has struggled to keep up with the demands of its ever exploding population. Instead of limiting population growth or increasing energy efficiency, India's solution has been to build ever more power plants of all types, including the dirtiest, coal. 

In 2023 alone India increased power generation by 11.3%, the fastest pace in more than five years. This year India will start operating new coal-fired power plants with a combined capacity of 13.9 gigawatts (GW). This is the highest annual increase in new coal power in at least six years. Renewable sources of energy are expected to grow by only 6.9% this year, down from the previous two years. 

At present, India generates about 428.3 GW of power annually, with some 50% of that from coal and it intends to keep expanding that with another 80 GW to be added by 2032. 

India understands that the more coal it burns the higher temperatures will climb and the more energy will be needed to cool India's uninsulated buildings. It also understands that burning more coal will increase floods, droughts, extreme storms and crop loss. And it understands that burning coal will increase air pollution and cause more illness, death and lost productivity. And because India mines much of its own coal and the remaining coal sits under its last old-growth forests, it knows that burning coal means more deforestation, habitat loss and extinction of critical wildlife.

India's fascist Hindu rulers also understand very well that supplying an abundance of cheap energy to voters will help keep them in power longer so that they can loot more money and that one of the ways to loot more money is with coal fired power plants, given their complexity and large number of suppliers who can be squeezed. Solar is too cheap, simple and the tendering process too transparent.

India's government justifies its insane actions by claiming that it has a right to catch up to the west and pollute just as much per capita as rich nations did to get where they are. China uses the same excuse. The idea that developing nations should be allowed trash the planet as much as they want is supported by the UN's IPCC and various climate NGOs.