Coal is on the rise in India: despite the devasting impacts of the climate crisis, the awareness for land and forest rights, and political talk of a coal phase-out. In this article, we demonstrate that despite the renewables-led rhetoric, India is in the midst of a transition to (not away from) greater use of coal in its fossil energy system and in the electricity system in particular. We investigate this paradox by combining socio-metabolic and political-ecological analysis of the Indian coal complex. Our framework integrates material and energy flow data as characterizing the Indian fossil energy transition, indicators on the development and structure of the coal industry, and studies of ecological distribution conflicts around coal. The dominant claim to expansive use of coal and the competing counterclaims are indicative of underlying power relations which can also be witnessed in other countries. In India, they extend into the conflicted development of renewable energy including hydropower, in which the land dispossession, exclusion, and injustices associated with the expansion of the coal complex are reproduced. We conclude that the current energy transition – in which coal continues to play a dominant role – is neither sustainable nor just.

中文翻译：

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谈论可再生能源，走煤炭：印度能源转型的悖论

印度的煤炭正在崛起：尽管气候危机、土地和森林权利的意识以及关于煤炭逐步淘汰的政治言论造成了毁灭性的影响。在本文中，我们证明，尽管以可再生能源为主导，印度正处于向（而不是远离）在其化石能源系统，尤其是电力系统中更多地使用煤炭的过渡过程中。我们通过结合对印度煤炭综合体的社会代谢和政治生态分析来研究这一悖论。我们的框架整合了表征印度化石能源转型的物质和能量流数据、煤炭行业发展和结构的指标以及围绕煤炭的生态分布冲突研究。广泛使用煤炭的主要主张和相互竞争的反诉表明了潜在的权力关系，这在其他国家也可以看到。在印度，它们延伸到包括水电在内的可再生能源的冲突发展，其中与煤炭综合体扩张相关的土地剥夺、排斥和不公正现象重现。我们得出的结论是，当前的能源转型——煤炭继续发挥主导作用——既不可持续也不公平。