Climate change?: Coal India ranks No 1, Adani No 3 in carbon emission worldwide, says Fossil Fuel Indexes report

By A Representative
In an astonishing revelation, several top Indian companies -- Government of India-owned Coal India, Gujarat's powerful Adani Group, Tata Steel, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Tata Power, and Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) -- have found their way into top 100 CO2 emitting coal companies worldwide.
A recent high-profile report by Fossil Free Indexes LLC has, in fact, ranked Coal India, a listed company, as the worst carbon emitter in the world with 57.722 gigatons (Gt) of CO2, ranking it No 1. Following Coal India’s carbon dioxide emission is China Shenhua with 36.807 Gt, ranking No 2, and then comes the turn of Adani Group with 25.383 Gt ranking No 3.
As for others, their CO2 emission is Tata Steel, ranking 31st, with an emission of 2.709 Gt; NTPC, ranking 48th, with an emission of 1.740 Gt; Tata Power, ranking 58th, with an emission of 1,062 Gt; and SAIL, ranking 91st, with an amission of 0.307 Gt of CO2.
The report, titled "The Carbon Underground 200TM", identifies the top 100 public coal companies and as many public oil and gas companies globally, ranking them by the potential carbon emissions content of their reported reserves.
As for oil and gas emission, Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) ranks No 14th worldwide, with a CO2 emission of 2.457 Gt, and Oil India ranks 34th, with an emission of 0.113 Gt.
Pointing towards the danger posed by these 200 listed pubic companies, the report, the report states, "The reserves of these companies total 555 gigatons (Gt) of potential CO2 emissions, almost five times more than can be burned for the world to have an 80% chance of limiting global temperature rise to 2°C (3.6° F)."
The report adds, the CO2 emissions potential of the coal, oil and gas reserves of these "largest public fossil fuel companies continues to grow", despite the "dwindling carbon emissions budget implied by a broad government policy agreement to avoid excessive global warming."
"The trends evidenced in this report demonstrate that reserve growth continues to be the norm for both the oil and gas and the coal sectors as a whole. The 555 Gt CO2 emissions potential estimated to be embedded in the reported reserves of the 200 firms – The Carbon Underground 200 – represents over 400% of the firms’ carbon budget allocation, based on their share of carbon emissions potential of global reserves", the underlines.
According to the report, it "estimates an updated carbon budget based on the only IPCC climate scenario with a future less than 2° C above pre-industrial levels with >66% probability. These estimates broadly confirm growing research on the exposure of public fossil fuel companies, especially those in the coal sector, to potential constraints and revaluation based on stranded assets.
The report further says, "Companies on the list are investable as of January 31, 2015. Subsidiaries with their own exchange listings that report reserves separately from their parent are eligible for inclusion. Companies that publicly trade only a portion of their overall shares are also eligible for inclusion."
It adds, "The rankings are based on calculated carbon emissions data using reserves reported as of October 31, 2014. The ranking are adjusted for company mergers and acquisitions through January 31, 2015."
Pointing towards its methodology, the report says, "Rankings are constructed using a reserves-based methodology with the underlying core data based on 'reported' reserves. Coal reserves are the sum of proven and probable reserves based on the last reported reserves amount by mine.”
It adds, “Reserves are allocated to listed companies based on percentage ownership of individual mines. Oil and gas companies are ranked on proven reserves (1P) net of royalty payments."
The report says, "The Carbon Underground 200 relies on the IPCC Revised 1996 Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories as a methodological framework. The calculation of CO2 emission potential requires several conversions to the raw reserves figures."
However, there is a disclaimer in the report: "Fossil Free Indexes LLC and its third-party data providers and licensors do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, timeliness or availability of the information contained herein".

Comments

Urgent need to study cause of large number of natural deaths in Gulf countries

By Venkatesh Nayak* According to data tabled in Parliament in April 2018, there are 87.76 lakh (8.77 million) Indians in six Gulf countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). While replying to an Unstarred Question (#6091) raised in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister of State for External Affairs said, during the first half of this financial year alone (between April-September 2018), blue-collared Indian workers in these countries had remitted USD 33.47 Billion back home. Not much is known about the human cost of such earnings which swell up the country’s forex reserves quietly. My recent RTI intervention and research of proceedings in Parliament has revealed that between 2012 and mid-2018 more than 24,570 Indian Workers died in these Gulf countries. This works out to an average of more than 10 deaths per day. For every US$ 1 Billion they remitted to India during the same period there were at least 117 deaths of Indian Workers in Gulf ...

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor* This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

India's health workers have no legal right for their protection, regrets NGO network

Counterview Desk In a letter to Union labour and employment minister Santosh Gangwar, the civil rights group Occupational and Environmental Health Network of India (OEHNI), writing against the backdrop of strike by Bhabha hospital heath care workers, has insisted that they should be given “clear legal right for their protection”.

Uttarakhand tunnel disaster: 'Question mark' on rescue plan, appraisal, construction

By Bhim Singh Rawat* As many as 40 workers were trapped inside Barkot-Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi after a portion of the 4.5 km long, supposedly completed portion of the tunnel, collapsed early morning on Sunday, Nov 12, 2023. The incident has once again raised several questions over negligence in planning, appraisal and construction, absence of emergency rescue plan, violations of labour laws and environmental norms resulting in this avoidable accident.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

Job opportunities decreasing, wages remain low: Delhi construction workers' plight

By Bharat Dogra* It was about 32 years back that a hut colony in posh Prashant Vihar area of Delhi was demolished. It was after a great struggle that the people evicted from here could get alternative plots that were not too far away from their earlier colony. Nirmana, an organization of construction workers, played an important role in helping the evicted people to get this alternative land. At that time it was a big relief to get this alternative land, even though the plots given to them were very small ones of 10X8 feet size. The people worked hard to construct new houses, often constructing two floors so that the family could be accommodated in the small plots. However a recent visit revealed that people are rather disheartened now by a number of adverse factors. They have not been given the proper allotment papers yet. There is still no sewer system here. They have to use public toilets constructed some distance away which can sometimes be quite messy. There is still no...

Women's rights leaders told to negotiate with Muslimness, as India's donor agencies shun the word Muslim

By A Representative Former vice-president Hamid Ansari has sharply criticized donor agencies engaged in nongovernmental development work, saying that they seek to "help out" marginalizes communities with their funds, but shy away from naming Muslims as the target group, something, he insisted, needs to change. Speaking at a book release function in Delhi, he said, since large sections of Muslims are poor, they need political as also social outreach.

Warning bells for India: Tribal exploitation by powerful corporate interests may turn into international issue

By Ashok Shrimali* Warning bells are ringing for India. Even as news drops in from Odisha that Adivasi villages, one after another, are rejecting the top UK-based MNC Vedanta's plea for mining, a recent move by two senior scholars Felix Padel and Samarendra Das suggests the way tribals are being exploited in India by powerful international and national business interests may become an international issue. In fact, one has only to count days when things may be taken up at the United Nations level, with India being pushed to the corner. Padel, it may be recalled, is a major British authority on indigenous peoples across the world, with several scholarly books to his credit.

Gujarat Bitcoin scam worth Rs 5,000 crore "linked" with BJP leaders: Need for Supreme Court monitored probe

By Shaktisinh Gohil* BJP hit a jackpot in the form of demonetisation, which it used as an alibi to convert black money into white in Gujarat. Even as party scrambles for answers of how the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADCB), whose director is BJP president Amit Shah, received old currency worth Rs 745.58 crore in just five days, and how Rs 3118.51 crore was deposited in 11 district cooperative banks linked with Gujarat BJP leaders, a new mega Bitcoin scam, worth more than Rs 5,000 crore has been unraveled.

Counterview

Search This Blog