Non-fossil fuels now account for half of India’s installed energy capacity — years ahead of schedule — but the third-largest greenhouse gas polluter remains deeply reliant on coal for electricity generation.”A landmark in India’s energy transition journey,” Minister of Renewable Energy Pralhad Joshi proclaimed after the world’s most populous nation released figures in July.”Five years early,” he added, referring to India’s 2030 target under the Paris Agreement, and marking a step to the country’s stated goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2070.But while the 50 percent milestone is significant, climate expert Avantika Goswami says the figures — which refer only to potential energy production — tell just part of the story.”Overall, actual generation from renewable sources is still quite low,” Goswami told AFP from the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).The reason is stark: nearly three-quarters of electricity continues to come from heavily polluting coal-burning power plants.- Coal paradox -The challenge becomes even more apparent when examining India’s continued dependence on coal. Far from decreasing its usage, the globe’s second-largest consumer of coal pushed up production of the dirty fossil fuel by five percent last year, mining one billion tonnes, according to the coal ministry.”Coal remains crucial,” the ministry said.The stance highlights the practical challenges of India’s energy transition. Coal is needed to fulfil power demands while storage capacity lags behind the surge in renewable sources of power.”The coal sector remains a crucial contributor to India’s energy mix, powering over 74 percent of the country’s electricity and sustaining key industries like steel and cement,” the coal ministry said, celebrating what it dubbed “India’s coal boom”.This reliance places India in a challenging position globally. The country ranks behind only China and the United States for carbon emissions overall.But analysts point out that in a country of 1.4 billion people, per capita emissions are only one-third of the global average, according to official figures.”Looking at India’s per capita emissions, the effort it is making, India is doing pretty well,” said activist Harjeet Singh, head of the Satat Sampada Climate Foundation.India has set itself the daunting challenge of reducing emissions by 45 percent by 2030.At the same time, electricity needs are expected to more than double by 2047, according to the country’s Center for Science and Environment.Supplying some of that demand “is likely to be met by the addition of renewables”, Goswami said.- ‘Waste that energy’ -Half of India’s 484.8 GW installed capacity is from non-fossil fuel sources.The majority comes from solar, totalling 119 GW — the third-largest level globally.India is building one of the world’s largest solar and wind energy farms, spread over a desert the size of Singapore.It is followed by hydro and wind, and also nuclear power — which makes up less than two percent of the total mix.But solar and wind create steady power only when the conditions are right, and India’s storage capacity is a meagre 505 MWh — far lower than it can generate.The storage bottleneck was not lost on the renewable energy minister.Speaking at the inauguration of a battery storage systems plant in June, Joshi said India’s renewable energy potential was “growing fast” and “adding 25–30 GW every year”. He added: “But without storage, we will either waste that energy or fall back on coal when renewables dip.”Building storage based on batteries requires rare earth metals, with rival and neighbour China controlling 70 percent of the world’s supplies.”We still remain dependent on China,” said Harjeet Singh, the climate activist. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in New Delhi for talks on Tuesday, with the supply of rare earth metals on the agenda.One solution India is considering is pump-hydro energy storage projects. When wind and solar plants produce excess energy, water is pumped into high reservoirs. That stored energy can then be released to generate power when demand surges.But Goswami believes the transition to cleaner power requires a multi-pronged approach.The transition to cleaner power must come from “emission intensity reduction” of often inefficient coal plants, combined with better integrated renewable energy in the grid that “will actually make the shift happen”.

Grinding charcoal with a few drops of goat’s milk, 60-year-old Basran Jogi peers at the faces of two small Pakistani sisters preparing for their first tattoos.The practice of elder women needling delicate shapes onto the faces, hands, and arms of younger generations stretches back centuries in the Hindu villages that dot the southern border with India.”First draw two straight lines between the eyebrows,” Jogi instructs her friend poised with a sewing needle.”Now insert the needle along the lines – but slowly, until it bleeds.”Six-year-old Pooja barely winces as dotted circles and triangles are tattooed onto her chin and forehead.On the outskirts of the rural town of Umerkot in Sindh province, her seven-year-old sister Champa declares eagerly beside her that “I am ready too”.In recent years, however, as rural Hindu communities in Muslim-majority Pakistan become more connected to nearby cities, many young women have opted out of the “old ways”.”These signs set us apart from others,” said 20-year-old Durga Prem, a computer science student who grew up in the nearby city of Badin.”Our generation doesn’t like them anymore. In the age of social media, young girls avoid facial tattoos because they think these marks will make them look different or unattractive.”Her sister Mumta has also refused to accept the tattoos that mark their mother and grandmothers.”But if we were still in the village, we might have had these marks on our faces or arms,” she reflects.- Ward off evil spirits -Just two percent of Pakistan’s 240 million people are Hindu, and the majority live in rural areas of southern Sindh province.Discrimination against minorities runs deep and Hindu activist Mukesh Meghwar, a prominent voice for religious harmony, believes younger generations do not want to be instantly identified as Hindu in public.Many Muslims believe tattoos are not permissible in Islam, and even those who have them rarely display them in public.”We can’t force our girls to continue this practice,” Meghwar told AFP. “It’s their choice. But unfortunately, we may be the last generation to see tattoos on our women’s faces, necks, hands, and arms,” he said.Few Hindus that AFP spoke with recalled the meaning behind the practice of tattoos or when it began, but anthropologists believe it has been part of their cultural heritage for hundreds of years.”These symbols are part of the culture of people who trace their roots to the Indus civilisation,” anthropologist Zulfiqar Ali Kalhoro told AFP, referring to a Bronze Age period that pre-dates modern religion.”These ‘marks’ were traditionally used to identify members of a community” and to “ward off evil spirits”, he adds. Admiring the work on the grinning faces of the two little sisters, elder Jogi agreed that it was an ancestral tradition that enhanced the beauty of women. “We don’t make them for any specific reason – it’s a practice that has continued for years. This is our passion,” she told AFP.The marks that begin dark black quickly fade to a deep green colour, but last a lifetime. “They belong to us,” said Jamna Kolhi, who received her first tattoos as a young girl alongside Jogi. “These were drawn by my childhood friend –- she passed away a few years ago,” 40-year-old Jamna Kolhi told AFP.”Whenever I see these tattoos, I remember her and those old days. It’s a lifelong remembrance.”