Recent discussions at COP30 in Brazil have again exposed the widening gap between India’s climate claims and its actual performance. Even as the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change repeatedly asserts that India is a global leader in climate action, the country slipped 13 places to 23rd in the Climate Change Performance Index released during the summit in November 2025. The principal reason flagged by the Index is India’s limited progress on phasing out coal, a challenge that has become increasingly structural and politically complex.
Coal today accounts for nearly 75 per cent of India’s electricity generation, shaping not only the national energy mix but also the economies and livelihoods of several States. Policymakers continue to argue that a sudden retreat from coal would cause job losses, destabilise electricity supply, and hurt affordability for millions of consumers. At the same time, persisting with coal dependence is aggravating global warming, worsening air pollution, and deepening the public health burden. This paradox places India in an especially difficult position: the country faces a transition far more complex than that of many other emerging economies due to the sheer scale of its dependence and the limited presence of economic alternatives in coal-rich regions.
Recent developments underscore this structural lock-in. Government data shows that India has added 7.2 GW of coal-fired power capacity in the current fiscal year ending March 2026—an expansion nearly 60 per cent higher than the previous year, with several months still remaining. Current plans indicate that the coal fleet will continue to expand at least until 2035. Even while renewable energy additions are increasing, there is no visible attempt to reduce or slow down new coal capacity. Without a clearly articulated and diligently prepared national energy policy that integrates climate, ecological, and social considerations, India risks steering its energy future into uncertainty and contradiction. The goal of achieving “net zero by 2070” looks increasingly inadequate in the face of cumulative damages that are already building up.
This conflict between energy expansion and ecological integrity is not limited to coal alone. The race to increase renewable energy, transmission lines, pumped storage plants, national highways, industrial corridors, railway lines, river-linking schemes, and large hydropower projects is placing unprecedented pressure on India’s natural landscapes. The Western Ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot and an ecological lifeline for southern India, illustrates the scale and seriousness of the threat.
Data from recent years shows an extraordinary number of projects—completed, ongoing or proposed—cutting through forests, wildlife sanctuaries and fragile catchments in Karnataka’s section of the Western Ghats. Completed and ongoing linear infrastructure projects such as high-tension power lines, highways, and lift-irrigation schemes have already resulted in the felling of more than a lakh trees, while the full set of projects in the pipeline could push total tree loss well beyond two million. Road widenings, new national highways, multiple railway lines, pumped storage projects in Sharavathy and Someshwara wildlife sanctuaries, power transmission corridors, and water diversion schemes together represent a permanent transformation of forest landscapes. For several projects, such as large highway widenings, the potential tree loss runs into hundreds of thousands. River valleys that support downstream agriculture, fisheries, and drinking water needs face long-term hydrological alteration. Wildlife movement routes are being fragmented across districts, from Hassan to Uttara Kannada. All of these projects are advancing at a pace that reflects neither ecological caution nor long-term environmental planning.
The cumulative environmental impact of these interventions is rarely assessed with seriousness. Project-specific clearances continue to be granted based on narrow technical evaluations that do not account for landscape-wide ecological functions or the intensifying effects of climate change. Whether the project is a pumped storage plant inside a wildlife sanctuary, a major highway cutting through old-growth forests, or a new transmission corridor requiring the clearing of hundreds of hectares, the review processes increasingly appear procedural rather than protective. The situation raises deeper questions about whether natural ecosystems can survive the accelerated push for infrastructure-led economic growth.
The judiciary, which many citizens look to as a last resort for environmental justice, has made several powerful public observations about ecological protection. A recent statement by a Supreme Court judge, describing environmental protection as a constitutional guarantee rather than merely an administrative obligation, reaffirmed this legal and moral position. Yet these observations, often made in public addresses, contrast sharply with the limited impact seen in actual judgments on major environmental cases. Court decisions frequently hinge on technical compliance instead of ecological substance, leaving large projects to proceed despite their long-term environmental consequences. Repeated appeals requesting the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of critical national environmental issues have not elicited meaningful action.
As a result, the degradation of forests, rivers, wetlands, aquifers, agricultural soils and air quality continues at an accelerating pace. Each year witnesses deeper ecological losses that cannot be reversed by compensatory measures or afforestation exercises. In the pursuit of economic growth and geopolitical stature, the country is eroding the very natural foundations on which long-term prosperity depends. Even if India achieves its ambition of becoming an economic superpower by 2070, it is worth asking whether such a status would matter in a future where water scarcity, extreme weather, public health crises, and ecosystem collapse diminish the quality of life for millions.
The present trajectory highlights the urgent need for coherent, science-based national energy and environmental policies that recognise the interdependence between economic development and ecological stability. India’s climate credibility, its constitutional commitments, and its long-term national interest all depend on a fundamental rethinking of how infrastructure, energy expansion, and environmental governance are balanced. Without such a shift, the cumulative losses may leave the nation economically stronger on paper but ecologically weakened in ways that no future growth can compensate for.
---
*Power & Climate Policy Analyst, Sagara, Karnataka. This article is based on email alert by the author sent to Counterview
Comments