IEA chief backs India on coal: No exit without support

India has maintained that it is not a polluter and cause of climate change and has voluntarily committed to reducing greenhouse gas emission intensity of its GDP by 33-35 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

Lending his weight to India’s stand on coal as an energy source, International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol said it won’t be fair to ask developing nations to stop using coal without giving international financial assistance to make up for economic challenges from such a move.

Developing nations like India depend on coal for 60 per cent of their energy, and coal and associated sectors are major employment generators, Birol said on Wednesday at the Energy Horizons Leadership Dialogue organised by Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW).

Endorsing the Indian stand of it not being responsible for global pollution, Birol said, “Climate change issue we have today, (that is) concentration of carbon in the atmosphere is not an issue of today. It is an issue of almost last 100 years.” “And many countries, so-called advanced economies, came to this industrialised levels and income levels by using a lot of coal. These are the US, Europe, Japan,” the IEA chief said.

India has maintained that it is not a polluter and cause of climate change and has voluntarily committed to reducing greenhouse gas emission intensity of its GDP by 33-35 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. Though it has taken up an aggressive plan to build renewable energy capacity, India sees a role for coal in its energy basket for the next few decades.

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