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‘Saved by coal’: Far from COP26, another reality in India

While getting rid of coal may be possible for some developed nations, it is not so simple for developing countries.

Naresh Chauhan, 50, and his wife Rina Devi, 45, fill sacks with coal in Dhanbad, an eastern Indian city in Jharkhand state. The two have lived in a village at the edge of the Jharia coalfield in Dhanbad all their lives. The couple earn $3 a day selling four baskets of scavenged coal to traders. [Altaf Qadri/AP Photo]
Published On 1 Nov 2021

Every day, Raju gets on his bicycle after he straps half a dozen sacks of coal pilfered from mines, up to 200kg (440 pounds), to the reinforced metal frame of his bike.

Driving mostly at night to avoid the police and the heat, he transports the coal 16km (10 miles) to traders who pay him $2.

This has been Raju’s life since he arrived in Dhanbad, a city in India’s eastern state of Jharkhand in 2016.

Thousands of others do the same. Coal is all they have.

This is what the United Nations climate change conference in Scotland, known as COP26, is up against.

Earth desperately needs people to stop burning coal, the biggest single source of greenhouse gases, to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, including the intense flooding that has cost agricultural jobs in India.

But people rely on coal. It is the world’s biggest source of fuel for electric power and so many, desperate like Raju, depend on it for their very lives.

“The poor have nothing but sorrow … but so many people, they’ve been saved by coal,” Raju said.

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 more than 27 million people in India who do not 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.

Coal India, the world’s largest miner, aims to increase production to more than one billion tonnes a year by 2024.

“Coal has continued for 100 years. Workers believe it will continue to do so,” said D D Ramanandan, the secretary at the Centre of Indian Trade Unions in Ranchi.

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.

A 2021 study by the Indian government found that Jharkhand, with the nation’s largest coal reserves, is also the most vulnerable Indian 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 four 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 Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

India’s coal belt is dotted by industries that need the fuel, like steel and brick making. Indian Railways, one of the country’s largest employers, earns half its revenue by transporting coal, allowing it to subsidise passenger travel.

“Coal is an ecosystem,” Pai said.

An Indian worker smiles as she takes a break from loading coal into a truck in Dhanbad. 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 Indian state to climate change. [Altaf Qadri/AP Photo]
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Workers load coal into a truck in Dhanbad. Coal, the biggest single source of climate-changing gases, provides cheap electricity and supports millions of jobs in India. [Altaf Qadri/AP Photo]
Labourers load coal onto trucks for transportation near Dhanbad. There are nearly four million people in India whose livelihoods are directly or indirectly linked to coal. [Altaf Qadri/AP Photo]
A worker poses for a photograph while taking a break from loading coal into a truck. There are roughly 300,000 people working directly with government-owned coal mines, earning fixed salaries and benefits. [Altaf Qadri/AP Photo]
A man climbs a steep ridge with a basket of coal scavenged from a mine near Dhanbad. India’s economic slowdown resulting from the coronavirus pandemic has intensified the workers' dependence on coal. [Altaf Qadri/AP Photo]
A young woman carries a basket of coal scavenged from a mine. Families who have lived amid coal mines for generations rarely own any land they can farm and have nowhere else to go. [Altaf Qadri/AP Photo]
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Murti Devi, who scavenges coal for living, prepares a hearth fuelled by coal at a village near Dhanbad. 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 will 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. [Altaf Qadri/AP Photo]
Smoke hisses from cracks in the ground as a villager holds his child in front of houses damaged due to subsidence near Dhanbad. [Altaf Qadri/AP Photo]
A washerman uses coal to heat up iron in Dhanbad. Power demand in India is expected to grow faster than anywhere in the world over the next two decades as the economy grows. [Altaf Qadri/AP Photo]
Members of coal workers' community fetch drinking water from a pipe at a coal depot near an open-cast mine in Dhanbad. [Altaf Qadri/AP Photo]
Flames rise out of the fissures in the ground above coal mines in the village of Liloripathra near Dhanbad. 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. [Altaf Qadri/AP Photo]
Mining in progress at an open-cast mine near Dhanbad. [Altaf Qadri/AP Photo]
A truck loaded with coal drives past a stationary freight train carrying coal at Chainpur village near Hazaribagh in Jharkhand. India's coal belt is dotted by industries that need the fuel, like steel and brick making. Indian Railways, one of the country's largest employers, earns half its revenue by transporting coal, allowing it to subsidise passenger travel. [Altaf Qadri/AP Photo]