(Bloomberg) — Built along a stretch of salt flats in southern India, the Tuticorin power plant epitomizes a quagmire for the world’s fastest-growing major economy: how to provide reliable energy to 1.4 billion people.
For starters, the 1,050-megawatt coal plant, one of the region’s largest, was supposed to shut down. Opened four decades ago, the facility is too cramped to install retrofits to meet the government’s pollution norms, prompting India’s power ministry to plan its closure by 2022. Yet the facility continues to run at full blast, clocking 90% utilization in February. Aging boilers guzzle coal from mines nearly 2,000 kilometers away — a transport distance that only adds to the nation’s emissions footprint.
Electricity consumption in India is growing at the fastest rate of any major economy, driven by rising temperatures and incomes, which have pushed up sales of power-intensive appliances like air conditioners. That explosive equation has exposed the country’s teetering grid. Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised to rapidly build out solar and wind generation to replace polluting fossil fuels, his administration hasn’t been able to keep up with demand, giving a second life to old, inefficient coal plants like the one in Tuticorin.
In recent months, Modi has green-lit a fresh wave of power station development and extended the lifespan of many existing coal assets. It’s a decision that puts India at odds with global allies who’re shunning the fuel on climate grounds, threatening Modi’s ambitions to curb air pollution and reduce the world’s third-largest share of greenhouse gas emissions.
Those dynamics will also hand the nation a crucial role in dictating the speed of the world’s retreat from coal. Demand in China, currently the top consumer, probably peaked last year and the rate of future growth will increasingly be driven by India and Southeast Asia’s rising economies, according to the International Energy Agency.
“The message is clear to both the international and domestic audiences: We’re all in for climate actions, but India’s domestic interests will take priority,” said Ashwini K. Swain, a fellow at Sustainable Futures Collaborative, a climate think tank in New Delhi.
India’s power ministry and Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corp., which runs the Tuticorin coal plant, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
India has a long way to go to ensure reliable and affordable electricity. In Oct. 2021, the country was hit by a massive coal and power crisis, just as the economy began to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic. Years of weak demand had led to sluggish growth in mining, transportation and power generation capacities.
Soon after the situation improved, officials realized the crisis wasn’t a blip. Energy demand rose to a new high the following summer, causing the worst supply shortages in eight years. In 2023, even though that squeeze eased at the national level, Maharashtra, one of India’s most industrialized states and home to its financial capital Mumbai, faced an alarming 10% peak deficit in August.
While shortages raised expectations that the country would accelerate the shift to green energy, India’s response was exactly the opposite. Officials pushed for more mining, abandoned plans to retire old power plants, raised targets to add coal-fired electricity and successfully lobbied international forums to adopt resolutions that wouldn’t hinder fossil fuel use.
“As a country, we should play to our strength, and coal is our strength,” said Prakash Tiwari, a former operations director at state-run NTPC Ltd., the nation’s largest power producer.
Alternative energy solutions haven’t yet caught on for financial, political and safety reasons.
More than 35 miles from Tuticorin, a dusty road leads to two solar power plants surrounded by sprawling wind parks. Ayana Renewable Power, which runs one of the facilities, sees a future in renewable power with energy storage to serve industrial users. That trend is rising in India, although far from becoming a source of mass power supplies. Solar accounted for 6% of generation in 2023, according to Bloomberg calculations based on power ministry data.
State-run power producer NLC India Ltd., which runs the other plant, is committing more than twice as much money to expanding mining, coal and lignite-fired power capacity than to building renewables, according to Chairman M. Prasanna Kumar.
Natural gas, pushed by producers as a less-polluting alternative to coal, has also struggled to compete. Nearly 25 gigawatts of gas-fired power capacity has been idling for years, priced out by other power sources, including coal. India doesn’t have enough domestically produced subsidized fuel to run the plants and operating these assets on imported liquefied natural gas is often too costly in India’s price-competitive electricity market.
Building hydropower dams is also fraught. Most of India’s potential there is locked in the fragile Himalayan region, where frequent extreme weather events, such as flash floods, jeopardize projects. The risks have galvanized local opposition against large dams, delaying plans by years and adding to costs that have rendered many of them unpalatable.
Nuclear power has seen a revival in many parts of the world for its low-emissions energy. But there, too, the industry in India has moved too slowly to make a mark and questions about safety persist. The nation’s nuclear liability law holds vendors and suppliers responsible for accidents. Many are still haunted by the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984, which killed thousands of people exposed to toxic chemicals.
Consider Kudankulam, about 90 miles south of Tuticorin. The site hosts two reactors of 1 gigawatt each and four more are being added. In the nearby village of Idinthakarai, 52-year-old Mildred, who goes by one name, has been at the forefront of protesting the plant’s construction. She’s traveled across the country to discuss the risks of nuclear energy.
“Why can’t these be our main source of energy?” the activist asked on a recent day, pointing to a few rotating wind turbines near her home.
In 2008, India struck an agreement with the US to share nuclear technology and fuel, clearing the runway for new projects. India has also signed deals with foreign reactor suppliers, including General Electric-Hitachi, Westinghouse Electric Corp. and Areva SA, which later transfered the project to state-run peer Electricite de France SA. GE-Hitachi has since backed out, citing the liability law.
In the western state of Maharashtra, India had planned to build the world’s largest nuclear power plant, a mammoth 9.6 gigawatts facility near sprawling Alphonso mango orchards.
But locals resisted selling their land when Kiran Dixit, then an executive director of the state monopoly Nuclear Power Corp. of India Ltd., visited the area.
They thought prices were too low and worried that the plan would harm the livelihood of fishermen and the mango trees. The company tried to put those fears to rest and the land was eventually acquired, Dixit said. Still, the Jaitapur project has yet to significantly break ground as the two sides continue to discuss terms of the deal.
OTTAWA – Canada’s unemployment rate held steady at 6.5 per cent last month as hiring remained weak across the economy.
Statistics Canada’s labour force survey on Friday said employment rose by a modest 15,000 jobs in October.
Business, building and support services saw the largest gain in employment.
Meanwhile, finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing experienced the largest decline.
Many economists see weakness in the job market continuing in the short term, before the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts spark a rebound in economic growth next year.
Despite ongoing softness in the labour market, however, strong wage growth has raged on in Canada. Average hourly wages in October grew 4.9 per cent from a year ago, reaching $35.76.
Friday’s report also shed some light on the financial health of households.
According to the agency, 28.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 or older were living in a household that had difficulty meeting financial needs – like food and housing – in the previous four weeks.
That was down from 33.1 per cent in October 2023 and 35.5 per cent in October 2022, but still above the 20.4 per cent figure recorded in October 2020.
People living in a rented home were more likely to report difficulty meeting financial needs, with nearly four in 10 reporting that was the case.
That compares with just under a quarter of those living in an owned home by a household member.
Immigrants were also more likely to report facing financial strain last month, with about four out of 10 immigrants who landed in the last year doing so.
That compares with about three in 10 more established immigrants and one in four of people born in Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information says health-care spending in Canada is projected to reach a new high in 2024.
The annual report released Thursday says total health spending is expected to hit $372 billion, or $9,054 per Canadian.
CIHI’s national analysis predicts expenditures will rise by 5.7 per cent in 2024, compared to 4.5 per cent in 2023 and 1.7 per cent in 2022.
This year’s health spending is estimated to represent 12.4 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product. Excluding two years of the pandemic, it would be the highest ratio in the country’s history.
While it’s not unusual for health expenditures to outpace economic growth, the report says this could be the case for the next several years due to Canada’s growing population and its aging demographic.
Canada’s per capita spending on health care in 2022 was among the highest in the world, but still less than countries such as the United States and Sweden.
The report notes that the Canadian dental and pharmacare plans could push health-care spending even further as more people who previously couldn’t afford these services start using them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
As Canadians wake up to news that Donald Trump will return to the White House, the president-elect’s protectionist stance is casting a spotlight on what effect his second term will have on Canada-U.S. economic ties.
Some Canadian business leaders have expressed worry over Trump’s promise to introduce a universal 10 per cent tariff on all American imports.
A Canadian Chamber of Commerce report released last month suggested those tariffs would shrink the Canadian economy, resulting in around $30 billion per year in economic costs.
More than 77 per cent of Canadian exports go to the U.S.
Canada’s manufacturing sector faces the biggest risk should Trump push forward on imposing broad tariffs, said Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters president and CEO Dennis Darby. He said the sector is the “most trade-exposed” within Canada.
“It’s in the U.S.’s best interest, it’s in our best interest, but most importantly for consumers across North America, that we’re able to trade goods, materials, ingredients, as we have under the trade agreements,” Darby said in an interview.
“It’s a more complex or complicated outcome than it would have been with the Democrats, but we’ve had to deal with this before and we’re going to do our best to deal with it again.”
American economists have also warned Trump’s plan could cause inflation and possibly a recession, which could have ripple effects in Canada.
It’s consumers who will ultimately feel the burden of any inflationary effect caused by broad tariffs, said Darby.
“A tariff tends to raise costs, and it ultimately raises prices, so that’s something that we have to be prepared for,” he said.
“It could tilt production mandates. A tariff makes goods more expensive, but on the same token, it also will make inputs for the U.S. more expensive.”
A report last month by TD economist Marc Ercolao said research shows a full-scale implementation of Trump’s tariff plan could lead to a near-five per cent reduction in Canadian export volumes to the U.S. by early-2027, relative to current baseline forecasts.
Retaliation by Canada would also increase costs for domestic producers, and push import volumes lower in the process.
“Slowing import activity mitigates some of the negative net trade impact on total GDP enough to avoid a technical recession, but still produces a period of extended stagnation through 2025 and 2026,” Ercolao said.
Since the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement came into effect in 2020, trade between Canada and the U.S. has surged by 46 per cent, according to the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
With that deal is up for review in 2026, Canadian Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Candace Laing said the Canadian government “must collaborate effectively with the Trump administration to preserve and strengthen our bilateral economic partnership.”
“With an impressive $3.6 billion in daily trade, Canada and the United States are each other’s closest international partners. The secure and efficient flow of goods and people across our border … remains essential for the economies of both countries,” she said in a statement.
“By resisting tariffs and trade barriers that will only raise prices and hurt consumers in both countries, Canada and the United States can strengthen resilient cross-border supply chains that enhance our shared economic security.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
