The strategic value of coal: Why India Needs more of it

In an era defined by climate action and the global push toward clean energy, coal is often cast as the elephant in the room. Yet, recent geopolitical upheavals, wars in the Middle East, and the ongoing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and gas crisis have forced policymakers to realise a more complicated reality: coal, despite its environmental costs, remains indispensable to global energy security, especially for emerging economies like India to realise Viksit Bharat 2047 vision in the short and midterm. The resurgence of coal is not a failure of climate ambition or climate action; rather, it is a mirror showing the reflection of structural vulnerabilities in the global energy system, which has never been fair for the Global South and for countries like India, which is aiming to aspire for its Viksit Bharat ambitions by 2047. The war in Iran, the Middle East, disruptions in global gas supply chains, and volatile LPG prices have exposed the fragility of overreliance on imported fuels for many countries worldwide. This has raised the point that a transition to a cleaner world by 2070 cannot happen without ensuring energy supply security and creating a fair global energy system.

Hence, dependence on coal will remain in the short- and medium-term until 2055. In the meantime, coal-to-gas, chemical, and liquid-fuel pathways need to be explored more aggressively for countries like India to improve energy security and mitigate current or future energy supply constraints. Gas supply for LPG, widely used for cooking and heating in developing nations, has always been subject to international price fluctuations and supply disruptions. Reliance on imported LPG creates fiscal pressure on countries like India and exposes households to price shocks. The need to convert coal to synthetic fuels such as methanol and dimethyl ether (DME), which can partially replace LPG in cooking and industrial applications, has only grown and can help stabilise prices by reducing dependence on imported gas. This is more pertinent if the future global geopolitical vulnerabilities increase.

Coal continues to supply the bulk of India's electricity for households and industry. This supply dependence arises against the backdrop of intermittency issues with the availability of electricity from solar and wind in India, due to inadequate, suboptimal storage facilities. The situation on that front is gradually improving. However, until the optimal levels of storage and the grid infrastructure's intermittency issues are solved, coal will remain the source of base load power and will continue to do so if the manufacturing and service sector's share of GDP rises in the future.

The risks of grid instability on the Indian Power Grid increase every day during the peak demand period, while the renewable-source-based electricity supply dips in the evening. The backup is often provided by hydro and wind to a large extent. However, the situation can worsen if peak demand continues to rise with future economic activity, without concomitant storage and grid infrastructure support. Hence, coal is a strategic support in such a case.

With the advent and investment in coal gasification technologies, dependence on LPG for cooking and industrial applications can decrease if the availability and off-take of methanol and DME increase, thereby enhancing national energy security and resilience. Coal creates local pollution, but it cant be seen as a binary choice between coal versus renewables or clean energy. India's people-centric clean energy transition will be a symbiotic coexistence of coal and clean energy, placing people at the core by addressing inequality, industrialisation, and urbanisation.  Coal will evolve during such a transition, generating cleaner products through gasification. Supercritical and ultra-supercritical power plants will have to be introduced to significantly reduce emissions per unit of electricity generated in this pathway.

Carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) and methane capture will be part of the pathway while supporting the lives, livelihoods, and identities of coal ecosystem communities. Abrupt coal phase-out will create trauma, memory, and identity loss for communities, which will be more personal and beyond the metric of income.

India, if it is to reach Viksit Bharat by 2047, cannot afford a collapse of communities owing to abrupt coal phase-downs or phase-outs. Communities have to evolve and enter a transition process through reskilling, rehabilitation, and repurposing efforts around coal mines.

Coal provides the people of India with the energy autonomy to attain Viksit Bharat by 2047, while we still take gradual steps towards scaling and deploying renewable energy technologies and their infrastructure. A world that is becoming more fragile, politically multipolar, with geopolitical vulnerabilities, only reminds us that coal's relevance is not about nostalgia but about navigating and negotiating the peaceful present and future of India. Hence, Coal is surely not an elephant in the room but a solution for India and its Viksit Bharat Goals.

The writer, Research Lead, ACPET, Director, Manav Rachna Centre For Peace and Sustainability ; views are personal