India plans to reopen more than 100 coal mines previously considered financially unsustainable, a government official said on Friday, as a power crisis forces the world’s third-largest greenhouse gas emitter to double down on dirty fuels. A surge in air-conditioning use last month sparked the worst power crisis in more than six years, and while temperatures have eased in recent days, they are expected to spike again soon.

“Earlier, we were called bad boys because we were promoting fossils,” Coal Minister Anil Kumar Jain said at a conference to attract more private sector participation in the fuel, now that we are running out of fuel. ” “Against this backdrop, the ministry and Coal India have taken a very brave move to provide a large supply of coal very quickly.”

Coal Minister AK Jain said on Friday that India hopes to boost coal production by 75-100 million tonnes over the next two to three years by restarting closed mines. India is the world’s second-largest coal producer, importer and consumer, producing 777.2 million tonnes of the fuel and burning more than 1 billion tonnes in the year to March 2022.

State-run Coal India, the world’s largest coal mining company that produces 80 per cent of India’s coal, plans to boost annual production to 1 billion tonnes by 2024 from the current 622.6 million tonnes. India’s power minister last month asked states to continue importing coal for the next three years, citing domestic shortages and rising demand. His ministry also invoked an emergency law to restart power generation at some idled power plants meant to use imported coal but were not operating for financial reasons.

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Global coal prices have retreated from near-record highs this week. Still, they remain elevated compared to 2021 levels amid concerns about tight supplies following the European Union’s decision to ban coal imports from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.