India's push to expand domestic coking coal production could significantly increase methane emission unless abatement is integrated into mine planning, a report of Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) said on Friday, July 31.
As production moves deeper, underground coking coal reserves, methane intensity is expected to rise, creating a growing and largely overlooked climate risk, the report said.
Coking coal methane emissions are concentrated in India. Seven mines account for 81 percent of the emission from 30 operating mines that were tracked, almost all of them in eastern state of Jharkhand. Targeting methane mitigation in this small number and embedding methane management could deliver rapid and cost effective emission reductions while avoiding long-term emission lock-in, the report said.
Around 87 percent of India's abatable coking coal mine methane emission can be mitigated for less than $20/mt of carbon dioxide equivalent. This is in line with global estimates of the International Energy Agency (IEA), demonstrating that costs should not be a barrier to methane mitigation.
India should also prioritize lowering coking coal demand in steel through electric arc furnace (EAF), scrap utilization and green hydrogen. Additionally, utilization of coal mine methane and coal bed methane in steel value chain in itself can help lower coking coal demand and meet steel decarbonization targets, the report said.
