India needs both coal and renewables: UK NGO

India does not have a choice between coal and renewables as both are needed for its growth, the World Coal Association (WCA) has said in a report, underlining that coal can play a "critical" role in lifting people out of energy poverty.
The London-based non-governmental organisationnoted that improved energy access will drive India's economic growth and continue as a critical enabler of development in a report titled 'Asia: Coal's Future'.
"Improved energy access will drive economic growth. The Indian government has said that the country's economy will more than double to 5 trillion dollars in a 'matter of years'. As it has in the past, coal will act as the default energy source for electrification for India," said Benjamin Sporton, WCA chief executive, the author of the report, which was published last month.

"For a country like India, it's not a choice between coal and renewables - both are needed and both will play a big role. Recently, China has shown how coal can play a critical role in lifting people out of energy poverty - out of the total population of 1.3 billion, only three million do not have access to electricity in China today," he added.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), 237 million people in India have no access to electricity.
India's residential electricity consumption - for those that have power - lags well behind the world's average and is, according to the IEA, 10 times lower than that of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.

"For example, average residential consumption in Bihar is around 50 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per capita per year, which equates to an average household use of a fan, a mobile telephone and two compact fluorescent light bulbs for less than five hours per day. Add to that that 67 per cent of India's population rely on wood or animal dung to cook.This cannot continue to be the case," the report notes.

Sporton believes the key approach for the world to transition to a low carbon future is to address the carbondioxide emissions.
"Coal is not the problem, emissions are," he concludes.
According to his analysis, Southeast Asia continues to choose coal because of cost and high efficiency, low emissions (HELE) coal technology, which costs five times less when compared to some renewables, may be the answer.

Using China as an example, Sporton highlights how the country is taking important steps to close down smaller, inefficient power stations but it is also building large, modern and more efficient (HELE) coal-fired power plants - new regulations effectively ban sub-critical (non-HELE) coal technology.
"Although there has been some progress, currently older and less efficient technology (sub-critical) tends to be the default choice in the region and less than half of new plants are being built using HELE technology," he said.
The IEA predicts that demand for coal will grow 4.6 per cent year on year to 2040, making it an important area to focus on.