Why it’s so hard to quit coal

Aniruddha Ghosa

Every day, Raju gets on his bicycle and unwillingly pedals the world a tiny bit closer to climate catastrophe. Every day, he straps half a dozen sacks of coal pilfered from mines — up to 200 kilograms — to the reinforced metal frame of his bike. 

Driving mostly at night to avoid the police and the heat, he transports the coal 16 kilometres to traders who pay him $2. This has been Raju’s life since he arrived in Dhanbad, in Jharkhand state in 2016; annual floods in his home region have decimated traditional farm jobs.

Coal is all he has. This is what the United Nations climate change conference in Scotland, known as COP26, is up against. Alok Sharma, the United Kingdom’s president-designate of the conference, said in May that he hoped the conference would mark the moment where coal is left “in the past where it belongs.”

While that may be possible for some developed nations, it is not so simple for developing countries. They argue they should be allowed the “carbon space” to grow as developed nations have, by burning cheap fuels like coal, which is used in industrial processes such as steelmaking along with electric power generation.

On average, the typical American uses 12 times more electricity than the typical Indian. There are over 27 million people in India who don’t have electricity at all. Power demand in India is expected to grow faster than anywhere in the world over the next two decades as the economy grows and ever more extreme heat increases demand for air conditioning that so much the rest of the world takes for granted.

The consequences will be felt both globally and locally. Unless the world drastically cuts greenhouse gas emissions the planet will suffer even more extreme heat waves, erratic rainfall and destructive storms in coming years, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. And a 2021 Indian government study found that Jharkhand -- among the poorest in India and the state with the nation’s largest coal reserves -- is also the most vulnerable state to climate change. But there are roughly 300,000 people working directly with government-owned coal mines, earning fixed salaries and benefits.

And there are nearly 4 million people in India whose livelihoods are directly or indirectly linked to coal, said Sandeep Pai, who studies energy security and climate change at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. India’s coal belt is dotted by industries that need the fuel, like steel and brick making. The Indian Railways, the country’s largest employer, earns half their revenue by transporting coal, allowing it to subsidize passenger travel. “Coal is an ecosystem,” Pai said. For people like Naresh Chauhan, 50 and his wife Rina Devi, 45, India’s economic slowdown resulting from the pandemic has intensified their dependence on coal.

The two have lived in a village at the edge of the Jharia coalfield in Dhanbad all their lives. Accidental fires, some of which have been blazing for decades, have charred the ground and left it spongy. Smoke hisses from cracks in the surface near their hut. Fatal sinkholes are common. Naresh hopes that his son would learn to drive so that he, at least, could get away. But even that may not be enough. There’s less work for the city’s existing taxi drivers.

Wedding parties, which in the past reserved cars to ferry guests, have shrunk. Fewer travellers come to the city than before. “There is just coal, stone and fire. Nothing else is here.” India and other countries with coaldependent regions have to diversify their economies and retrain workers, he said — both to protect the livelihoods of workers and to help speed the transition away from coal by offering new opportunities. Otherwise, more will end up like Murti Devi. The 32-year-old single mother of four lost the job she had all her life when the mine she worked for closed four years ago. Nothing came of the resettlement plans promised by the coal company so she, like so many others, turned to scavenging coal. On good days, she’ll make a dollar.

On other days, she relies on neighbours for help. “If there is coal, then we live. If there isn’t any coal, then we don’t live,” she said.