Coal news and updates

Green watchdog to soon release coal sector ratings

February 17: The Centre for Science And Environment (CSE), a not-for-profit public interest research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, will shortly release its environmental ratings of the coal and lignite based thermal power sector, according to a communique.

Can coal-based thermal plants ever be clean? What is the track record of Indian thermal plants in terms of efficiency, pollution, fly ash and water management? What must be done to make sure that thermal power plants in India meet energy requirements but do not cost us the environment?

These are the questions CSE’s Green Rating Project (GRP) has spent the last two years looking at.

The study covers the top power companies of India, most of which have participated voluntarily in the exercise and based on this it has rated who is best and who is not.

The Green rating is an independent study, which is based on extensive surveys of plant sites and analysis of data under the guidance of a panel of industry and academic experts.

“It, therefore, has the credibility to drive performance change. In the past, CSE has rated India’s major industrial sectors, including steel, cement, automobile, chlor-alkali and pulp and paper,” said Sunita Narain, Director General of CSE, through a release.

According to CSE, these ratings have been an effective tool to drive environmental improvement in industry.

“We hope we will make a similar contribution through this study,” Narain added.