Tata Mundra: Potentially among the Top CO2 Emitters in India
Written by:
Shakeb Afsah and
Kendyl Salcito • Jun 09, 2011
Topic: World Bank; energy; power plant; supercritical
CO2Scorecard's findings have elicited a strong reaction in India, and for good reason. If the Tata Mundra plant (expected to begin commercial operation in 2011) does not meet its 0.75 tons of CO2/MWH, as predicted, it is likely to become India's largest polluter. Building on the analysis presented in “The World Bank’s Coal Electricity Headache” the CO2Scorecard researchers compiled data on CO2 emissions of the Indian power plants released by the Central Electricity Agency (CEA) of 
India.
As shown in the Exhibit below, if Tata Mundra meets the performance target of 0.75 tons of CO2 per MWh of electricity, it will still be the second largest CO2 emitter nationally. The IFC boasts that Tata Mundra “is likely to be the most energy-efficient, coal-based thermal power plant in the country.” But it will have to run cleaner than the cleanest coal plant in the US to achieve that goal. With stakes so high, it is essential that IFC and the plant owners agree to monitor the daily CO2 emissions using continuous emissions monitoring system (CEMS), and publicly disclose the data. Without monitoring, the IFC will have little defense against the possibility that it may be funding India's biggest-CO2 emitting power plant.
