India’s Coal and Power Minister has reaffirmed that he wants to see the end of thermal coal imports into his country very soon.
According to Business Today, the nation’s government has set a goal to increase state-run Coal India’s production to one billion tonnes by 2019.
“Indian companies used to import a lot of thermal coal. We want to completely stop its import over the next two to three years,” stated Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday.
Last year, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) said Minister Goyal’s ambition for India to cease thermal coal imports was “entirely feasible“; but perhaps not until 2021-22.
Whether the end to thermal coal imports occurs by 2019 or 2022, it spells bad news for international coal miners satiating India’s hunger for the “little black rock“. It also makes hugely expensive new projects such as the Carmichael mine in Queensland even more of a head-scratcher.
In 2014, IEEFA warned international coal ventures including Australia’s Galilee Basin project that will rely on markets such as India face major financial risks.
Last year, the Secretary-General of the OECD also stated new coal investment isn’t just bad for the environment; it’s a very risky investment.
Adding to the risk is the divestment movement, which is rapidly growing. A report in December 2015 stated over the preceding year 500 organizations worth more than USD $3.4 trillion had pledged to divest from fossil fuels.
Further reducing India’s reliance on imported coal is the country’s fast-tracking of solar power uptake.
“The previous government had set a target of 20,000 MW of solar capacity by 2022. But we want to achieve this target by 2017. We have set an ambitious target of achieving 100,000 MW of solar capacity by 2022,” said Minister Goyal, who is also the country’s renewable energy minister.
Utility scale solar capacity addition in India during the first quarter of this year was forecast to be equivalent to the entire capacity added in 2015. Last year, India invested USD $10.9bn in clean energy; up 23%.
Deutsche Bank said last year that annual investments in India’s solar sector could surpass investment in coal by 2019.
