India says Paris climate deal won’t affect plans to double coal output – ‘Our dependence on coal will continue. There are no other alternatives available.’

By Krishna N. Das and Tommy Wilkes; editing by Susan Fenton
14 December 2015 NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India still plans to double coal output by 2020 and rely on the resource for decades afterwards, a senior official said on Monday, days after rich and poor countries agreed in Paris to curb carbon emissions blamed for global warming. India, the world’s third-largest carbon emitter, is dependant on coal for about two-thirds of its energy needs and has pledged to mine more of the fuel to power its resource-hungry economy while also promising to increase clean energy generation. “The environment is non-negotiable and we are extremely careful about it,” Anil Swarup, the top bureaucrat in the coal ministry, told Reuters. “(But) our dependence on coal will continue. There are no other alternatives available.” While India has plans to add 30 times more solar-powered generation capacity by 2022, there were limitations to clean energy and coal would remain the most efficient energy source for decades, he said. Minister for Power, Coal and Renewable Energy, Piyush Goyal, said India’s contribution to global greenhouse gases emissions was just 2.5 percent with 17 percent of the world’s population, while developed countries contributed a fifth of emissions with just 5 percent of the world’s population. “While contributing to (the) growth of renewable energy, energy conservation & efficiency, we’ll make sure our development process (does) not get hampered,” Goyal said in a post on Twitter. [more]

India says Paris climate deal won’t affect plans to double coal output