India-China Cooperation:
Compulsions of Coal and Power Generation
Border tensions between India and China continue to simmer. Trade friction between the two have spilled over, with each competing vigorously over trade and energy investments. Mutual cooperation is rare. But when their interests converge, they cooperate, to create a powerful combination. Their recent agreement to work together to resist international greenhouse gas emission measures are driven by the compulsions of the usage of fossil fuels, especially coal, in the power sector.
Fossil fuels account for 80 per cent of global energy use. The main contributors in this are: oil (34 per cent); coal (25 per cent); natural gas (21 per cent). The balance comes from nuclear power (6.5 per cent); hydro-power (2.2 per cent); biomass,wood, other waste products (11 per cent).
Geothermal, solar and wind energy contributes less than 1 per cent. Nearly one-third of global fossil fuel use is for producing electricity.
Coal and Power Production
Coal is cheap and locally available in huge quantities. It is so inexpensive that even after expenses on pollution control, it can still maintain it's competitive advantage. Fifty percent of the electricity in the United States is generated from coal, and for India and China it is, 70 per cent and 80 per cent respectively. Consequently, it accounts for about 40 per cent of energy-related CO2 and about one-fifth of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity.
Coal use in China and India alone is very near to the consumption level of the U.S. and the rest of the world combined. The World Bank in its recent development report says that 1.6 billion people or nearly a quarter of the world's population – have no electricity. The largest concentration of electricity deprived population is in the developing countries of South-east Asia and would need massive expansions in energy sector.
The growing demand for electricity in the region is likely to be met by increasing use of coal. Vietnam,Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand are in the process of increasing coal use in their power plants to lower costs and diversify sources of fuel. India presently uses only about a fifth as much coal as China. Rapid increase in population and expanding economy will fuel its demand for electricity. India may shortly rival China in coal use.
Estimates suggest that 86 percent of incremental world coal demand between now and 2030 will come from both. China is the world’s largest coal producer and coal fuels 80 per cent of it's electricity generation. It has been commissioning the equivalent of two 500MW coal-fired power plants per week. A single such plant releases about 3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually into the air. Similarly, 68 percent of India’s CO2 emissions are from coal.
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)
There is global consensus on the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but the most touted method – Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), is not only expensive but also remain controversial. To develop cost effective technology to reduce CO2 emissions at the point of origin will take time. It is also feared that an effective technology to contain emissions would stimulate the use of fossil fuels, and deflect attention from developing clean and renewable energy sources.
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