Share of coal in India’s total installed capacity falls below 50% in FY24: Report

A recent report from the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW) stated that the share of coal in India’s total installed capacity fell below 50% for the first time in FY24. According to the research, 71% of India’s 26GW of additional power generation capacity in FY 2023–2024 came from renewable energy sources. India has 442 GW of installed energy capacity in total, of which 144 GW (or 33%) came from renewable sources and 47 GW (or 11%) from hydropower. As a result, for the first time, the proportion of coal and lignite in India’s total installed capacity fell below 50%. The report said nuclear capacity (1.4 GW) was also added in the same fiscal year for the first time since 2017.

Australia commits to gas beyond 2050 despite climate warnings

Australia plans to extract and use gas until “2050 and beyond”, despite global calls to phase out fossil fuels, reports BBC News. Prime minister Anthony Albanese’s government said the move is needed to boost domestic energy supply while supporting transition to net-zero. However, critics argued the move is a rejection of science and pointed to the International Energy Agency’s call for “huge declines in the use of coal, oil and gas” if the world is to meet climate targets. In addition to supporting domestic energy, the policy is based on Australia’s “commitment to being a reliable trading partner”, the article added, as the country is one of the world’s largest exporters of liquefied natural gas.

Shell rakes $7.7 billion in profits in first quarter of 2024, sparks row

Shell, the largest oil and gas company in Europe made, $7.7 billion (£6.1 billion) in earnings in the first three months of the year, more than $1 billion more than analysts had predicted. Shell declared that it would return an additional $3.5 billion to its stockholders as a reward. Reduced operational costs, higher margins from crude and oil products, and refining, according to Shell, were the main drivers of the performance, offsetting reduced trading in liquefied natural gas. However, the impressive numbers also stoked criticism of the business’s climate change initiatives. Think-tanks and activists said the corporation “cannot be trusted to drive the green transition”, while it continues to “rake in huge sums of money” from the sale of fossil fuels. Shell investors are urging other shareholders to approve a resolution at the company’s annual general meeting that calls for the company to take more action on climate change. According to the resolution, the business must match its “medium-term” greenhouse gas emissions goal to the Paris Agreement, which aims to reduce global warming. 

In a first, EU proposes sanctions on Russia’s LNG sector

The European Commission has, for the first time, proposed sanctions against Russia’s liquefied natural gas sector, a report by POLITICO said. The restrictions would stop EU nations from re-exporting Russian LNG after they had received it, even if they wouldn’t outright prohibit Russian LNG imports into the EU. The sanctions would also prohibit EU’s participation in future LNG projects in Russia. According to the proposal, this would restrict Russia’s ability to expand its LNG output and, consequently, its income. This is the first time the bloc has taken aim at the wealthy gas industry in Moscow. However, the proposed fines would only have a minimal impact on Russia’s earnings from fossil fuels, the report added, even though targeting LNG represents a substantial change in EU policy. Russian earnings from the highly-cooled gas trade amounted to only 25% of total revenue last year, with the EU being the primary buyer of Moscow’s LNG. Furthermore, experts note that as none of the planned LNG facilities presently ship cargo to Europe, the sanctions would mostly be preventive in nature. 

Coal India’s contribution to govt exchequer rises 6.4% in FY24

The state-owned Coal India Ltd. (CIL) contributed ₹60,140.31 crore to the government exchequer in FY24, noting a 6.4% rise compared to the fiscal year 2022–2023, according to the Economic Times. Coal India produces approximately 80% of the country’s coal. According to preliminary data from the coal ministry, the company paid ₹56,524.11 crore to the government exchequer in FY23. In March 2024, the total amount of taxes paid to the government increased by 14.8%, from ₹5,282.59 crore in the corresponding month of FY23 to ₹6,069.18 crore. A maximum of ₹13,268.55 crore of the total ₹60,140.42 crore paid to the government exchequer in FY24 went to the state government of Jharkhand. Other recipients included the governments of Odisha at ₹12,836.20 crore, Chhattisgarh at ₹11,890.79 crore, Madhya Pradesh at ₹6,188.89 crore, among others.

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