Back before COP21 in 2015, Denialists were claiming that India would never get on board with renewables, as if this were somehow a reason for the US not to do so either. At the time, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted nothing to do with getting rid of coal.
Internet Can't Keep Calm After Discovering This Old Video Of Modi Denying Climate Change
At 1:27 in this video. There are three of this speech at least on YouTube, with more than 200,000 views altogether.
'Climate has not changed. We have changed. Our habits have changed,' Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said while answering to a question on climate change back in 2014.
But then we got on his case.
Coal
India was in an energy crisis, with constant blackouts around the country. It had plenty of coal-fired power plants, and could buy plenty of coal on international markets, but it lacked the rail and road capacity to get the coal to the plants 24/7.
Coal Stockpiles Clog Up Indian Ports Amid Rail-Car Shortage
Bottlenecks in coal supply are hurting utilities, aluminum smelters and steel mills. Some 8.7 gigawatts of generation capacity was shut as of the end of June [2018] due to coal shortages, according to Bloomberg calculations based on Central Electricity Authority data. India has 197 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity.
To address the problem, state-run Indian Railways is ordering more wagons and is building new tracks with Coal India.
India’s coal industry in flux as government sets ambitious coal production targets
Nuclear
India, climate change and nuclear power: the denials, delusions and deceptions of Modi
Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, has been inconsistent at best about climate change. Now the country has massive nuclear expansion plans, which he claims is a solution. The apparent desire to appease energy companies and the violent oppression of nuclear opponents are a cause for serious concern.
In terms of actual policies back home, the Modi government has been hugely scaling up the renewable sector, but has also made an unwavering support for nuclear power, purportedly as a solution for climate change!
India has huge reserves of thorium sands, and is hoping that thorium molten-salt reactors will turn out to be cheaper than renewables, for their own use and as export products. I don't think so, but I am happy for someone to run the experiments and get real answers, yea or nay. Nevertheless, there is no way that thorium could become a viable solution in time to deal with Global Warming, given the time needed for R&D, licensing, finance, and construction, even supposing that there are neither cost nor schedule overruns.
Why India wants to turn its beaches into nuclear fuel
Indian-Designed Nuclear Reactor Breaks Record for Continuous Operation
Yes, we will have a Friday on thorium and other new reactor types, but not for a while yet.
The Conversion
Play heroic role at Climate talks, Greenpeace appeals to Modi
The NGO urges India to pledge a total shift to renewable energy in India by 2050.
Greenpeace, the NGO which has had a troubled relationship with the NDA government, on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to play a heroic role at the ongoing CoP21 Paris Climate Change conference, and pledge a total shift to renewable energy in India by 2050.
For India, the conference presented the opportunity to play a historic role. A complete shift to renewable energy would produce millions of clean energy jobs, to which there could be a transition. This should be done without affecting those who were currently working in the fossil fuel energy sector.
In several actions against NGOs, the Narendra Modi government recently cancelled the international license of Greenpeace, which is registered in Tamil Nadu, alleging fraud. The NGO has been approaching the courts to stay afloat, winning partial reprieves.
Most of the article is the full text of the Greenpeace appeal. For example:
Climate change was not made in India, but the price is being paid in India. Could the grounds for a solution now be laid by India? Could you, the political leader of nearly one-fifth of humanity, make history by securing a deal for the world?
Of course, there was a multitude of other NGOs pressing Modi for sanity.
India has been hostile to NGOs for decades. Modi made it worse
India to ratify Paris Agreement: The landmark climate change deal's journey under Modi govt
After linking the success of its climate change commitments to NSG membership, India backtracked and set the Oct 2 date
Modi's announcement came after uncertainty had clouded the fate of the deal, at least in terms of India's climate change commitments, since the government had attempted to link the success of India's climate change efforts to membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
As India faced resistance in in its bid to secure NSG membership, on June 19, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, as reported earlier, has said that India's membership to the NSG this year was important in order for the country in order to meet its commitments under the Paris Agreement. The commitment in question was that India would secure 40 per cent of its power capacity in 2030 through clean sources, with a third of that capacity coming from nuclear power.
In fact, according to The Indian Express, India's refusal to commit itself to ratifying the Paris Agreement by December 2016 in the G20 communique in Hangzhou was meant as a snub to the summit's host, China, for having blocked India’s entry into the NSG.
How petty!
In 2015, speaking at the United Nations conference in Paris, PM Modi said that India did not create the climate change menace but was suffering its consequences. Climate change is a major global challenge. But it is not of our making. It is the result of global warming that came from prosperity and progress of an industrial age powered by fossil fuel,” he said.
"But we in India face consequences. We see the risk to our farmers. We are concerned about rising oceans that threaten our 7,500 km of coastline and 1,300 islands. We worry about the glaciers that feed our rivers and nurture our civilisation."
Writing for the Business Standard, Nitin Sethi explained: "The agreement requires 55 countries accounting for 55 per cent of the global greenhouse gas emissions to ratify in order for the pact to come into force. 60 countries adding up to 48 per cent emissions have already done so and both the necessary thresholds would have been crossed by countries by October leaving India behind — risking global opprobrium. The annual climate negotiations are to begin on November 7 and an informal meeting of environment ministers is planned for October — both in Morocco."
Progress Begins
IEEFA update: India coal plant cancellations are coming faster than expected
Global Coal Plant Tracker shows project pipeline shrinking by 25%
So India has turned its policy around, but the shortages continue.
Next week, as much good news from India as I can fit in.
We have looked at the developed countries, China, and India. Rest Of World (ROW) is next after part 2 of India's story. Here is a starting point that I linked to in an earlier Diary.
The Developing World Is Taking Over Renewable Energy
In 2016, renewable energy investments in poorer countries eclipsed investments in wealthier countries for the first time ever. Since then, the upward trajectories of their growth have held steady or increased.
Egypt grew renewables investments by 495 percent, the UAE by 2,815 percent, Rwanda by 8,665 percent, and Jordan by 26 percent.