UNCHA AMIRPUR: Subedar Singh bears the scars of India’s painful reliance on dirty power and its struggle to pay for the costly transition to the brave new world of solar and renewable electricity.

Last year, the farmer walked into a field in his village and suffered 70 per cent burns to his feet and ankles from an underground coal fire caused by a nearby power plant. Singh said he dragged himself out of the field and then fainted from the searing pain.

The people of Uncha Amirpur in the northern Uttar Pradesh state − east of the smog-afflicted capital New Delhi − discovered that a mix of water and coal used by the nearby NTPC Dadri power plant had accumulated under the field and caught fire. Some cattle died.

Hundreds of millions of people in India are forced to live with the fallout of the dirtiest fuels − with the government blaming a lack of funds to pay for greener power.

Money will be the key issue when about 100 countries meet in Paris on Tuesday for the One Planet Summit organised by French President Emmanuel Macron. The meeting will focus on marshalling public and private funds to speed the move to a low-carbon economy.

Developing countries say barely a tenth of the $100 billion promised by the end of the decade under a 2010 deal has come in so far.

“If more money is available, of course the (Indian) government is in a position to push renewable energy faster,” energy analyst Narendra Taneja said.

“The pollutants accumulated over the decades, we didn’t do that. It was the West and they should clear up those dues as soon as possible,” said Taneja, a consultant to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

India needs $140 billion to reach Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious target of installing 100,000 megawatts of solar power by 2022, according to Arunabha Ghosh, chief executive of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, a New Delhi think tank.

So far it has just 15,000 MW, less than five per cent of the country’s total generation capacity of 331,000 MW.

Developing countries “have stayed committed to the Paris agreement, even after the US decision to exit, but their ability to scale up ambitions is contingent on how much rich countries do at home and how much they support actions outside,” Ghosh said.

“Next year could be a tipping point for their patience.”

Agence France-Presse