Understanding interest group politics in policy formulation: the case of environmental standards

Abstract

Although India’s clean energy sector has seen massive investments and commitments over the past few years, the country has still been unable to ramp down its massive dependenc eon coal based power plants. We see that coal continues to dominate the energy sector in the country with a contribution of over 55% of the total power generation. Coal based power plants are significantly problematic given the negative externalitieon the environment and society as a whole. These emissions contribute significantly to air pollution; the SOx and NOx emissions lead to respiratory problems such as airway inflammation, broncho constriction and asthma. Furthermore, they also consist of mercury and other particulate matter which also have severe impact on inhalation. Despite these aforementioned externalities coal based electricity is still seen critical to provide round-the-clock electricity across the country and to achieve 100% electrification by December 2018. [3] Further roadblocks to the migration to clean energy comes in form of the coal lobby, which has a vested interest in the continued dependence on coal given that India has the fourth largest coal reserves in the world.