Amitabh Sinha: India may face coal heat in Paris

According to the correspondent of “The Hindu”’ in Paris, “there were unmistakable signals that India would get singled out over the next two weeks over its plans to expand use of coal to meet its growing energy demands.”

“ Outside the meeting rooms, in informal conversations, press conferences and news articles, there was increasing talk about India’s coal plants and how India was playing spoiler. Such talk has been happening in the climate change circle ever since US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed his disapproval of India’s plans on coal usage in a recent interview."

" 'This is unfortunate and a very inadequate appreciation of India’s energy transition. We are ramping up our renewable energy capacity by seven times and it would be really unfortunate if that effort is not appreciated. Coal would also grow but it is necessary for our development,” Ajay Mathur, one of the key negotiators for India, said."

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