India faces a huge energy deficit, with millions of households without power for basic lighting or cooking, and coal power is essential for the next few decades to resolve this energy crisis, to address the issue of energy access, which is just as important as the environmental problems of unclean power.

Centre for Science and Environment believes that we need to push for renewable—not because we can afford to do without coal, but because this source of energy provides us the option to leapfrog to decentralised and off-grid power. But equally, and perhaps even more, important is to clean up our coal power so that it does not destroy the environment and take human lives. In this background, CSE has two programs in its ‘Clean Coal-Power plants’ initiative