India's path to renewable energy: Balancing growth and coal transition

From G20 to COP28, there were two themes India did not budge from: Increasing its share of renewable power generation for meeting its climate targets, and not phasing down coal production (read thermal power) for fuelling its economic growth. However, as the share of renewable energy (RE) increases in the country’s energy mix, it is expected that the dependency on coal will decline.

There are caveats, though. The most important one is, what will happen to India’s eight coal-rich states, which are socio-economically dependent on this dry fuel. Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Telangana