Why Just Transition is important for India’s coal phasedown

CarbonCopy, a media portal that tracks developments in the climate and energy sector, recently organized a webinar titled ‘Pathway to the Just Transition for India's Coal Rich States’ to air the growing concern about the socio-economic fate of workers especially from coal-rich states such as Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh where coal extraction is the primary revenue source and attracts other allied investments and industries.

Just Transition is a policy framework which is being adopted globally for just and equitable transition, including a range of social interventions, which will secure the workers’ rights and livelihoods as economies shift to a sustainable production, typically to combat climate change or protect biodiversity.

India’s road to energy transition and adopting a low carbon pathway involves shifting almost 60 per cent of its 384GW installed power capacity from coal to renewable energy.

On the flip side, out of 700 districts in India, around 120 are directly dependent on coal for their livelihood.

Talking about the transition, Vaibhav Chaturvedi, Fellow at Council for Energy Environment and Water (CEEW) said, “Just Transition is a massive exercise not just an incremental change, it is a change of the socio-economic structure. In the existing scenario, climate mitigation does not reflect in any financial discussion, the question of equity in just transition will be very critical.”

While the concept of Just Transition in European economies is focused on re-skilling and creating opportunities for the formal workforce, India’s coal sector involves an informal workforce which is nearly 2.5 to 3 times more than its formal workers, according to the portal.

Experts added that coal-intensive districts gradually become a mono-economy which attract allied industries like sponge iron, steel, cement and red brick production, which purchases coal directly from these mining operations.

This not only contributes to form the major share of the state’s revenue but also provides direct and indirect income options to communities living close by while also attracting workers from other districts as well.

Srestha Banerjee, Director - Just Transition at iForest said, “A survey of coal labourers in more than 400 households, revealed that the average household income of a family was Rs 10,000 per month. The poverty index mapped in top 25 mining districts of India established that more than 50 per cent of the population in top coal mining districts are multi-dimensionally poor which implies limited access to health, education and living standards. Most of the coal districts' multidimensional poverty index is nearly double than India’s average which is already 27.5 per cent. This is the reality that we have to deal with when we talk about the Just Transition in our country.”

The speakers further discredited the narrative that many development projects like schools, hospitals in these areas are run by mining companies.

They said that in most cases these facilities are only accessible to the formal employees and while some PSUs provide free electricity to communities within a couple of kilometers of the mining and power projects, private entities are not concerned with welfare schemes.

Shweta Narayan, Climate & Health campaigner with Health Care Without Harm, has worked with communities in both Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand for over two decades.

Said Narayan, “Welfare schemes like access to electricity, roads, education, drinking water and healthcare are the responsibility of the government. Private mining operations may have constructed a few roads in some regions, but those are halfhearted efforts and mostly to serve their own transportation needs. When you ask communities about a transition, their first question is if they will get a road here. This implies that these requirements are yet to be met in these districts.”

According to Chaturvedi. “In every crisis lies an opportunity. The net zero goals are forecast for the next 40-50 years, which is like comparing the development and standard of living between 1970 and 2020. This change will be a natural GDP growth and progression. Even with a conservative 5 or 5.5 per cent economic growth between 2015 and 2065, India's per capita income in real terms is projected to be approximately $14,000 by 2065.

“Currently our per capita income is $2000 and Chinas is $9000. While coal bearing states will be the main losers in comparison to states like Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh which do not have fossil fuel reserves, these states have ample time to start planning and this is where the Just Transition debate is extremely critical. We’re talking about possibly two generations in the next 50 years and we have to start building the required infrastructure and provide education so that those generations are more skilled and educated,” said Chaturvedi.

The speakers agreed that Just Transition must address the economic cost of coal industries' impact on environment and health.

The development so far has been top down where extractive and allied industries set up where fossil fuel reserves were available.

This transition should now involve the local stakeholders in shaping these state economies.

There are ample studies from both Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh which provide evidence of mounting carcinogenic toxins in the air, water and soil resources of these states.

Banerjee said, “While coal becomes the primary economic driver of coal-intensive states, development of sectors like agriculture, forest based livelihoods and fisheries etc get neglected and often the water and soil pollution also affects these sectors, along with depleted water tables.”

Narayan said “Coal is a parasitic industry, its monoculture takes over everything making it the only source of income. Coal industries exploit and build upon caste divides and thrive on existing differences.”

There is a common misconception that the entire population residing near coal mines are working in this sector.

Most of the workers in the coal sector are either migrant laborers or contract workers.

Coal companies often avoid hiring locals fearing that they will set up unions.

Narayan said, “We are only calculating the cost of transition, but we must factor in who is going to bear the impact of social and health responsibility? We need to build the infrastructure for the alternative and take people into consideration. The word Just in Just Transition stands for Justice and historical injustices have to be undone and their consequences. Justice cannot only be for the workers in the coal sector but for the entire impacted community as a whole.”

CarbonCopy is supported by Climate Trends, an agency that works towards simplifying complex environmental issues through research and communications.