India Is Betting on Carbon Capture to Keep Its Coal Sector Viable

According to a top government energy consultant, India is planning to implement a carbon capture program that would allow it to continue utilizing its massive coal resources while also addressing its rising emissions.

The policy is expected to be unveiled later this year if Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government retains power in the upcoming elections, and it will include incentives for companies to trap, recycle, and, where possible, store their emissions underground, according to Rajnath Ram, energy adviser at Niti Aayog, the Indian government’s policymaking branch.

“The power sector generates 42% of India’s total emissions,” Ram stated in an interview. “We estimate that 70% of that can be captured and recycled through carbon capture.”

Ram believes that rapid renewable deployment is insufficient to meet rising demand and avoid blackouts. “In the absence of storage, you must provide at least the same level of thermal capacity. We have an abundance of coal and wish to use it sustainably.“

Most climate scenarios consider some level of carbon removal necessary to combat climate change, but the technologies are still in their infancy, and most projects have proven unfeasible due to high costs and low efficiency. 

According to the International Energy Agency, around 40 Carbon Capture and Storage units are already operational throughout the world, with 50 more scheduled to begin operation by 2030, a pace much too sluggish to achieve carbon neutrality by the middle of the century. 

India is already looking at coal gasification, and it has set aside 85 billion rupees ($1 billion) in subsidies to assist projects get off the ground. The early-stage technology, which converts coal into gas to create power, produces slightly fewer emissions than typical coal combustion. 

According to the Global Carbon Project’s annual research, India is expected to have the highest rise in carbon dioxide emissions among major economies for the second year in a row.

The research, one of several issued at the annual climate change conference, claims there is a 50% possibility that in the next seven years, the globe will begin to surpass the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold continuously if current emission rates continue. Daily or weekly breaches are already occurring, and at least one yearly breach is probably probable during the next five years.