Environmental Justice in India: Incidence of Air Pollution from Coal-Fired Power Plants

Air pollution is a vexing problem for emerging countries that strike a delicate balance between environmental protection, health, and energy for growth. We examine these difficulties in a study of disparate levels of exposure to pollution from coal-fired power generation in India, a country with hig...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecological economics 2020-10, Vol.176, p.106711, Article 106711
Main Authors: Kopas, Jacob, York, Erin, Jin, Xiaomeng, Harish, S.P., Kennedy, Ryan, Shen, Shiran Victoria, Urpelainen, Johannes
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air Pollution
Coal Energy
Environmental Discrimination
Environmental Justice
Environmental Kuznets Curve
India
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Summary:Air pollution is a vexing problem for emerging countries that strike a delicate balance between environmental protection, health, and energy for growth. We examine these difficulties in a study of disparate levels of exposure to pollution from coal-fired power generation in India, a country with high levels of air pollution and large, marginalized populations. With data on coal plant locations, atmospheric conditions, and census demographics, we estimate exposure to coal plant emissions using models that predict emission transportation. We find that ethnic and poor populations are more likely to be exposed to coal pollution. However, this relationship is sometimes non-linear and follows an inverted u-shape similar to that of an Environmental Kuznets Curve. We theorize that this non-linear relationship is due to the exclusion of marginalized communities from both the negative and positive externalities of industrial development.
ISSN:0921-8009
1873-6106
DOI:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106711