Small steps in energy transition

Total Transition

The Human Side of the Renewable Energy Revolution 

Sandeep Pai & Savannah Carr-Wilson

Rocky Mountains Books,

212 pages; $22

Countries negotiating at the climate change conference at Katowice may have serious differences over the enabling rules for the Paris Agreement but they have one thing in common. The world over, most countries (even the US) are making serious efforts to move away from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Some countries, such as India, have aggressive targets. In that sense, a book exploring the human angle and the employment economy of the energy sector is welcome, especially when the authors are a former investigative journalist and an environmental law specialist. 

The book has interesting angles — starting with the writers’ personal story to their crowdfunding struggles and the effort to write a travelogue. The writers travel to India and Canada to study the impact of fossil fuels on human life and employment and to gauge whether the renewable sector could compensate the job losses arising from the phasing out of coal-based energy plants. The impact of fossil fuels on human life, ecology, the economy and employment has been explored in some depth, but the authors falter when it comes to the renewables sector.

During their India tour, the writers take us to India’s most infamous coal mining area — the Jharia coal fields in Jharkhand. Since the time fire broke out in the fields, there have been innumerable stories about human tragedy, coal diversion, the coal mafia, the government’s apathy and so on. The book explores all of that yet again. For someone who doesn’t know anything about the mess in Jharia, this comprehensive account offers much interesting information. 

What their account lacks is basic journalism: Questioning the state and corporate actors involved, especially when the people they talk to keep blaming the “babus”. The only government office the writers visit is the Jharkhand Resettlement Development Authority. It’s not just the lack of pointed questions that are glaring, the authors also focus on the wrong subject. It would have been interesting to know, for example, whether the coal companies in Jharia had drawn up alternate plans and their employment forecast as India makes a conscious effort to move to renewables and whether this move would have a significant impact on the coal business.

The book’s cover page synopsis says it talks about exciting developments in solar, wind in Canada, India, Africa and Europe. The writers have not visited any solar facility in India, however. The only fleeting mention of India’s solar programme refers to a comparison between a failed solar mini-grid programme in Bihar and a successful project in Kenya. For a country that has built 20 GW of grid-connected solar power in five years, this is a slightly harsh judgement. It leaves the reader with a “what if” question. What if the writers had visited an Indian solar plant and found a hopeful story of employment or perhaps, a dismal state of affairs as in a coal mine. What if there is another story behind the glorious numbers?

Had the writers been more thorough in their ground reporting in India, this would have been a complete book. The book started its journey around the same time when India made a tall commitment of 40 per cent of energy from renewable sources. There is no ground report on this aspect. The book, thus, misses the full promise in its title about following the “the human side of renewable energy revolution”. 

The Canadian experience, on the other hand, is beautifully written, well explained and comprehensive. The ugliness behind the lush green town of Fort McMurray owing to oil sand mining and the well-entrenched corporate lobbying is certainly astonishing. The writers meet local residents, workers, company officials and experts. They also visit a town running on renewable energy and sustainable innovations, which is an absorbing read.

The book is written in accessible language, perhaps with the intention of enlightening most people who don’t know much about the nitty-gritty of climate change. The writers are successful in doing that. There are variety of energy researchers quoted and plenty of eye-opening data. The travelogue format is interesting, too, as a Canadian travels in the by-lanes of a village in Ranchi and an Indian discovers a damaged forest town in Canada. The writers’ little discoveries as wide-eyed researchers add some mild humour and a human angle to an otherwise drab subject.

Still, the message is a powerful one. The writers recount a story told to them by the owner of a solar solutions company in Canada. A child, he says, throws back a starfish into the sea, hoping to save it. An old man asks the child how many can be saved this way since there are so many starfish in the sea. The boy answers by throwing back as many as he can back into the sea. The business owner says he tells this story to schoolchildren to teach them how one person can do something for climate change by taking small steps. 

This book is certainly one such small step. Transitions in the energy sector take decades to materialise, however, so it is vital that along with the idealism, the bigger dialogue on the employment aspect begins soon too.