India’s domestic coal based power plants have coal stock of 25.6 million tonne– the highest ever in the month of October barring the Covid year of 2020-21. The captive coal blocks have produced 58.6 million tonnes in the first seven months — a growth of 37.5 per cent over the same period of the previous year.

The government has also assured that the coal supply to the power sector is being monitored regularly. The domestic coal supply to the power sector is 12 per cent more than the same period of the previous year which is the highest ever supply to the power sector in the first seven months of any financial year, an official statement said.

Meanwhile coal, considered to be the single largest source of global carbon emissions, is back in demand across the globe as the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has crippled energy supplies. With an unprecedented rise in global economic uncertainties, several countries including Germany, the European Union’s (EU) largest economy have decided to resort to coal based power generation. Incidentally, India had come under the scanner last year after the conclusion of the Conference of Paris (COP) 21 for altering the wording of the final deal to “phase down” instead of “phase out” coal.

In less than a year, the developed countries are now scrambling to resume coal based energy generation.

China has the largest number of operational coal power plants. India ranks second. Germany, the largest economy in the EU has 63, according to data collation portal Statista.

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