Neel Ghosh, The Organisation for World Peace

Ancient forests, indigenous people, and vulnerable wildlife are under threat in India as Prime Minister Modi has launched a plan to auction 40 new coal mines to the private sector. The move to open India’s state-owned coal industry to the private sector will significantly increase coal production, wreaking environmental havoc in the process, as least seven of the coal blocks were previously environmentally valuable status where mining was forbidden, and about 80% of the blocks are home to ancient forests and indigenous communities.

…Climate and energy expert Mohamed Adow writes of efforts by climate change-denialist think tanks such as Nigel Lawson’s Global Warming Policy Foundation to push fossil fuels in Africa, despite the fact that the continent has 40% of the world’s potential solar resources and would benefit far more from the decentralised and clean nature of renewable energy than the environmental destruction of building large-scale power grids for fossil fuels.