India is the world’s second-largest coal producer, with over four million workers directly or indirectly dependent on the coal sector. As renewable energy becomes cheaper and climate commitments tighten, coal mine closures will accelerate — but without planned transition support, the social consequences could be severe.
Just transition in India requires three elements: economic diversification in coal-dependent districts, reskilling and social protection for displaced workers, and environmental remediation of closed mine sites. Each requires different expertise and different funding mechanisms.
Several states are already planning. Jharkhand’s just transition framework, developed with multilateral support, maps the employment implications of coal phase-down and identifies alternative livelihood opportunities in renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and eco-tourism.
RSustain’s experience in environmental remediation, community resilience assessment, and social impact measurement makes us well placed to support just transition programmes. Our ResilientPulse platform maps district-level vulnerability indicators that are directly relevant to transition planning.
The cost of managing the coal transition properly is high but manageable. The cost of not managing it — in terms of social unrest, political backlash, and delayed decarbonisation — is far higher.