India’s leading coal-producing state Telangana is aiming to become Net Zero by 2047 — nearly two decades before the national goal of 2070. The southern state, which has about 7.3 per cent of the country’s coal reserve, is in the process of preparing a roadmap to gradually transition away from coal usage in its new industrial parks.
“In Telangana, we are very clear that we can achieve that goal much faster. Some back-of-the-envelope calculations have shown that it would be possible for our state to achieve that by 2047. We are preparing a roadmap, and a lot of action has to be undertaken to encourage use of clean energy,” said Jayesh Ranjan, special chief secretary to Telangana government, at the launch of a report on ‘Economic Diversification of Coal Communities’ by Swaniti Global on Wednesday.
As a leading manufacturing hub, the state has also planned that all its new industrial parks in Hyderabad will not depend on coal as the primary source of energy. “Telangana, specifically Hyderabad, is an important centre for the life sciences industry with industrial parks for pharmaceutical manufacturing, including vaccines as well as medical devices. While most of the old industrial units are coal-fired, the new industrial parks will not have coal as the source of energy. We are very clear that we now have better alternatives,” said the senior bureaucrat.
The government has also proposed to set up a Net Zero City — a satellite township — close to the main city of Hyderabad where all the industrial activities will have gas as the source of energy. While, on one hand, the state government is keen to demonstrate its movement away from coal, it also faces the biggest challenge of ensuring a just transition of lakhs of workers employed in the mining industry.
The report released by Swaniti showed that one of Telangana’s largest coal-producing districts, Peddapalli, has three of every 10 people directly or indirectly dependent on the coal sector for employment. Much of the district’s infrastructure is paid for directly with coal revenues and the electricity is coal-derived for its total population of eight lakh people.
Addressing the question of ensuring a just transition, the senior official said the government will work out an alternate livelihood strategy, since it has critical social consequences. One of the plans is to set up a Young India Skilling University to provide vocational courses to family members of coal workers.
“We will ensure that the courses are low-cost, and enable family members of those employed in the mining industry to get jobs in industries. The plan is also to extensively promote entrepreneurship with the help of self-help groups. We are in talks with industrial associations to develop master plans for industrial development beyond Hyderabad in other cities and districts. We have to do many things to enable a just transition for the workers,” he added.
The report released by Swaniti Global studied large coal dependence across two states in India — Jharkhand and Telangana — with case studies from Ramgarh, Bokaro and Peddapalli. A key finding of the report showed that most coal communities do not see themselves as primarily energy-producers forever. This means that the energy sector and related jobs may play just a small role in the economic diversification of these communities, and governments should thus support efforts to diversify that go beyond the energy sector.
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