Coal news and updates

Goyal moots clean coal grouping for cheaper technology

India on Tuesday proposed a global grouping of major coal-based power producing countries for a common approach in tackling climate issues and achieving economy of scale by combining individual requirements to make clean technology more affordable.

Power, coal and renewable energy minister Piyush Goyal has been sounding out Australian government and business representatives on the idea during his meetings in the country's business and financial capital. To drive home his point, the minister has also beein pointing out that India's norms for power stations were more stringent than those in the developed economies.

Indian pollution norms for power stations have specific provision addressing emission of individual gases -- sulphurous and nitrous -- from power plants, a developed economy such as Australia did not.

To begin with, Goyal has suggested a grouping of India, China, Australia and the US. "We want to have some tieup.and come together to work on bringing down the price of technologies and products to reduce pollution in coal-based power plants," Goyal explained.

All these economies use coal to generate power and have to invest in new technology for climate mitigation. India has maintained that it would continue to ramp up coal-fired power generation capacity but meet its climate pledge by reducing carbon footprint through introduction of clean technology and a massive programme to expand renewable energy portfolio.