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I have written about the economic, social, and human need for India to increase its per capita consumption of energy.
It’s the sad reality of today’s technologies and energy sources that much of that increase will come from coal fired thermal power plants.
Here is an article that backs up my thesis by S A Iyer – https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/energy/power/view-sorry-greta-india-needs-more-coal-to-power-growth/articleshow/71562772.cms
But Greta, there is more to this than global warming. The CO2 increase is the least damaging from an immediate perspective for the people of India. The more significant and urgent problem is pollution.
The coal-fired plants in India do not invest enough to reduce pollution from particulate matter and harmful gases. Particulate matter, especially of the sub 2.5-micron variety is a big problem.
CO2 is certainly not a harmful gas in the air – not when it goes up by a few decimal points of a per cent. However, the nitrogen and sulphur oxides, the carbon monoxide, and several other pollutants, are noxious gases.
Particulate matter and harmful gases in the air are already killing a million people annually in India. I suspect it is even more when you look at death by other diseases that are linked to pollution. Those don’t get included in pollution-related deaths because the link is not clearly established yet by reliable studies.
India has a very urgent public health reason to ignore the CO2 and global warming effects of Coal-fired power plants. And instead, solve for the pollution that they create.
India must enforce stringent filtration standards on Coal-fired plants – for particulate matter and harmful gases. And while we are at it, can we also go the extra mile and enforce carbon sequestration standards?