The National Green Tribunal (NGT) barred power plants from arbitrarily switching over to cheaper coal without obtaining fresh environmental clearance. The green court cancelled a policy in place for the past five years whereby thermal power plants were allowed to change their “source of coal”, irrespective of ash content, calorific values or potential environmental hazards, reported Newsclick.
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change had issued the policy through an “office memorandum” dated November 11, 2020, without consultation with stakeholders or conducting scientific assessments.
Setting aside the office memoranda, the court said: “The MoEF&CC [the ministry] which is a regulatory body of the environment and ecology, instead of converting towards higher accountability it is drifting towards dilution in the name of reforms.”
Trump shifts US funds from shutting down foreign fossil fuels to expanding them
Trump is increasingly redirecting foreign finance for helping countries transition to clean energy instead to fossil-fuel expansion, reported Climate Home News. He has scrapped energy transition partnerships with South Africa, Indonesia and Vietnam and is trying to halt US backing for the African Development Bank (AfDB) and multilateral Climate Investment Funds, the report said.
The Trump administration ordered the US Export-Import Bank (EXIM) to back coal power projects abroad and, “seemingly with some success, is putting pressure on the World Bank to fund more fossil fuels,” the climate news portal noted.
Climate campaigners said these changes would foster dependence on coal, oil and gas in developing countries, worsening climate change and holding back economic development, the report said.
New coal supply rules allow private producers long-term contracts without PPAs
India changed rules to allow long-term coal supply contracts to private power producers as it looks to ramp up its coal-powered plant capacity, reported Reuters.
The government also did away with the requirement that coal power producers should have power purchase agreements to sell electricity.
Producers with or without PPAs will be able to get coal on an auction basis for a period of up to 12 months of 1 to 25 years, by paying premium above the notified price and providing the power plants the flexibility to sell the electricity as per their choice. India aims to increase its coal-fired power capacity by 80 GW by 2031-2032 to meet the growing demand for electricity.
Coal India to set up $3 billion worth clean energy projects to boost renewable heft
Coal India will set up clean energy projects of around 4.5 gigawatts at a cost of 250 billion rupees (about $3 billion), as it aims to achieve net zero carbon emissions from its operations, reported Reuters. The state-owned miner has been diversifying beyond coal, which is still key for the country’s power needs, as a part of the wider national aim to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2070.
Fossil fuel industry emits one-third of global methane: IEA report
The fossil fuel industry constitutes one-third of the global methane emissions from human activities, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) ‘Global Methane Tracker 2025‘, reported Carboncopy.
The report said limited mitigation measures, combined with global production of oil, gas and coal, has kept methane emissions from the energy industry above 120 million tonnes annually, found the report. This is higher than official figures. In fact, satellites detected large leaks from oil and gas facilities, resulting in a record high in 2024, found the report. Around 5% of energy related methane emissions — or 8 million tonnes — came from abandoned coal mines, oil and gas wells, found the report.
China and Russia to build the Russia-China Power of Siberia-2 pipeline
Reuters reported that Russia and China are at an “active stage” of talks on a proposed new gas pipeline, the Power of Siberia-2, carrying Russian gas via Mongolia to China, but are unlikely to sign a contract in the next couple of days, Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev said, according to Russia state news agency TASS.
Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Moscow for celebrations to mark the 80th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.
“The companies are working on the contract. They are in the active stage of negotiations, so I think it is unlikely – there are one or two days left – that they will manage to do this before May 9,” he said, referring to Thursday’s war anniversary.
The Power of Siberia-2 is slated to carry 50 billion cubic metres of natural gas a year from the Yamal region in northern Russia to China via Mongolia.
EU plans to end Russian gas imports by end of 2027
The European Commission has published a roadmap for ending reliance on Russian energy, which includes a ban on all Russian gas imports by the end of 2027, reported the BBC.
“A set of legislative proposals will be tabled in June asking all EU member states to make ‘national plans’ to phase out Russian gas, nuclear fuel and oil imports, according to the European Commission,” the news outlet said.
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