by Cheryl Adam
Additionally, he points out: “The quality of the coal is low, meaning the logistics of transporting the coal 400 kms to the port, then a quarter of the way around the world, makes it uneconomic relative to higher quality Australian coal that is much closer to the coast.” And, lastly, Buckley states that the cheaper cost of renewables is undermining India’s demand for thermal coal, as renewables are now one fifth of their cost in 2010 when the Adani Group acquired the coal deposit in the Galilee Basin.
As he comments, “So, Carmichael is a stranded asset, unable to provide an economic return on investment. The move by global banks to reduce funding thermal coal also means the project is ‘unbankable’ that is, unable to attract independent financial institutions’ support in the absence of massive government subsidies.”
In spite of Adani Australia’s Chief Executive Jeyakumar Janakaraj promoting the new project as a way to “lift millions of Bangladeshis out of poverty,” the power purchase agreement, notes Buckley, “is geared primarily toward assisting Adani companies at the expense of Bangladesh.”
With India’s growing reliance on imported coal up until 2016, Dutta said, India had also been caught in the grip of “a coal-importing racket.” Coal is being imported at a higher price than what was being paid. These artificial costs were allegedly passed on to the supplier who then increases the cost of the electricity to consumers.
In April 2016, according to The Adani Brief, a number of Indian media outlets reported the investigation of five Adani Group companies accused of inflating the quality, and hence, the value of coal imported from Indonesia. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) found evidence to “suggest huge over-valuation to the extent of about 50% to 100%,” according to The Adani Brief. It is understood that the DRI has since dropped all charges against the Adani Group over the overvaluation of coal imports.
The Adani Group has strongly denied all allegations. In August and October 2017, the DRI (adjudication) dropped all charges against the Adani Group relating to the inflation import of power plant equipment worth Rs 1600 crore. K.V.S. Singh, the Director General of DRI (adjudication) in his August order had said, “The contract price was arrived at independently through international competitive bidding process.” He had also said that Adani Power Rajasthan Limited has adopted transparent and good corporate governance practices of procurement.
The talk around the table with the environmentalists turns to India’s position on climate change. Imogen Zethoven asks the group about India’s role in the Paris agreement and what its post-2020 climate change actions will be.
“Does India have an INDC? (Intended Nationally Determined Contribution)?” she asks.
“India,” Dutta explains, “has used its status as a developing nation to not accept a limit on peak emissions. When the emissions do peak, India does not accept a deadline to stop or limit emissions.”
So effectively, I am thinking, as one of the major polluting nations, India appears to pay little regard to the Paris agreement … but then to be fair, nor does Australia.
The group is scathing about the social impact on the villages around Mundra from the aggressive expansion of the power plants.
“Both Adani and Tata brought in large number of migrant workers when the power plants were being constructed – a phase which goes on for four years. 90% of the workers were migrants.”
The group estimates that there were as many as 8000 to 9000 migrant workers from Odisha and other states who flooded Mundra and its surrounding villages and a large number of them were semi-skilled. According to Sazina Bhimani’s 2014 thesis, there was a 57.21% decadal growth in population in the Mundra town attributed directly to industrialisation of the area through the large number of immigrants attracted by employment prospects.
“As a result, alcohol consumption and other social ills – family violence against women and children – have gone up. The number of police raids and seizure of alcohol has gone up,” Dutta said. (Gujarat is a ‘dry’ state.)
And, of course, there are the hidden costs of environmental pollution. They say that both the Tata Mundra and Adani Mundra power plants consume about 29 to 30 million tonnes of coal per year.
“If you have to wash 30 million tonnes of coal and put that water into the Gulf of Kutch – it’s an enclosed gulf, it’s not an open sea – what does it do with all that coal ash in that small area? Fishing has been devastated.
“Particulate emissions from power plants contain heavy metals, as well as all sorts of other pollutants including toxic volatile organic compounds and sulphur dioxide. Coal-fired power plants are a major source of particulate matter,” says Dutta. “Tata’s have better filters in place.
“Tata is trying to project a better image. Adani doesn’t care much. Adani is far more ruthless.”
Apart from the debate about the effects of the proposed Carmichael mine in India, there has also been plenty of discussion about the effects of the mine on existing Australian coal mines. An article in the ABC in July 2017146 cited research from global resource analytics company, Wood Mackenzie, which pointed out that while both the Federal and Queensland Governments were stressing the economic benefits of new mines in the Surat and Galilee basins, it would come at “a severe cost to jobs and economies in other regions” including ten new mining projects in NSW being displaced; the Hunter Valley thermal coal output falling by some 86 million tonnes (37%) and the Bowen Basin declining by a third of its output with 17 million fewer tonnes mined. The general manager at The Infrastructure Fund said the impact of the Galilee basin mines on the Port of Newcastle would be “pretty devastating.”
“I’m an investor, not a politician, but it seems a perverse outcome when you are taking jobs in one part of the country and promoting them there and displacing them or destroying them in other parts of the country,” he told the ABC.
D. Thomas Franco Rajendra is a quiet unassuming man whom we meet in the hotel meeting room. He had been recently elected as General Secretary of the All India State Bank Officers’ Federation which is an independent trade union representing more than 90,000 officers employed by the State Bank of India. He tells us that he has an interest in environmental issues particularly relating to climate change.
Rajendra found out about the Adani project after the Chairman of the State Bank of India became part of a delegation by Modi to Australia in 2015. Gautam Adani was also part of the delegation. Narendra Modi was the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Australia for 28 years. At the time, the State Bank of India had stopped short of sanctioning a loan for the Adani Carmichael mine after signing an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) in November 2014. But the bank had ordered that Adani had to get all of the clearances from the Australian Government for the mine before they would lend any money for the project. “I understand Adani got all of these,” Rajendra asks us over the top of his spectacles.
Zethoven is quick to reply. “Not quite.” She outlines the problems that still existed, then, with the $1 billion NAIF loan and other legal challenges from the Australian Conservation Foundation as well as Indigenous challenges to appropriating land to build the Carmichael mine.
Zethoven asks whether the State Bank Officers’ Federation was able to take an active role in convincing the State Bank of India not to finance Adani.
“The bank will not finance Adani unless the profitability of the project is ensured and all the clearances are given by the various agencies,” Rajendra states firmly, adding that advising the bank is not the role of the Federation. He encourages us to write to the Board of Directors and the Chair of the State Bank of India, explaining that his organisation did not normally intervene in the lending practice of the bank unless it is obvious that it is ‘wrong’ lending, for example, if a company had a background of making constant losses.
He requests further information for his trade union about our environmental concerns adding that he does not think the Carmichael mine will be a big employment generator. Imogen Zethoven hands him a briefing paper f
rom the Australian Marine Conservation Society on the effects on the Great Barrier Reef from Adani’s proposed mine.
“But,” I ask, “if Adani is investing in nineteenth-century technology when renewable energy is cheaper, wouldn’t that make the banks scared?”
Rajendra does not immediately answer.
I continue, “We have been told as well any lending for Adani depends on the viability of the project and that Adani had to demonstrate that 75% of the coal production was locked into contracts.”
“The bank,” he finally answers my initial question, “is influenced by the Government, and the Adani group is close to the present Government.”
Zethoven asks whether it would be useful to let the State Bank know about the refusal of Australian and international banks to lend money to Adani. He agrees.
“This Adani group itself has come into prominence only recently,” he tells us. “It’s not a traditional business house. It was during the present Prime Minister’s period as Chief Minister of Gujarat that they got some small contracts – they got the port in Mundra; then they had some solar projects; gas projects; now they have got into many ports and terminals like Chennai. They have ports – in Andhra Pradesh they are also building a port. Now they are diversifying into many other activities. But the growth has happened only over 10 to 15 years and their level of debt is quite high.”
Zethoven asks if the bank will consider the amount of carbon emissions the coal from the proposed Carmichael mine will contribute to India’s carbon footprint. Rajendra shrugs. He has no answer for this. As the meeting draws to a close, he passes over the email address of the Chair of the State Bank.
To date, the State Bank of India has reportedly not committed to funding the Carmichael mine, or its associated offshoots. Following a spate of Stop Adani protests, Australia’s big four banks all withdrew support for the Adani mine in 2017.
Back in my hotel room, the phone rings. It’s my husband Grant.
“That spot, you know where we regularly go snorkelling. It’s showing signs of bleaching.”
“What?”
I am brought home abruptly as to why I am here. The coral on our home turf is also showing signs of stress. I had thought, for the time being, the southern part of the reef had escaped bleaching.
There had been hardly any signs as far as I knew reported further south in the back-to-back bleaching events of 2016 and 2017. But in this out-of-control world it was quite possible anything could happen.
The former Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Jairam Ramesh, has his offices in a leafy suburb of New Delhi. He is to be one of our last interviewees in India. Environmental debates were first introduced to the Indian national political agenda during Indira Gandhi’s prime ministership in the late 1960s. Ramesh was minister from 2009 to 2011 – a significant time for Adani when the company was seeking environmental approval for their power plant at Mundra.
After being petitioned by the MASS (Machimar Adhikar Sangharsh Sangathan) – the group representing the fishing community from Mundra – Ramesh decided to make their complaints about Gautam Adani a test case: “To follow the laws of the land. I wanted to say to him: ‘Go through the process and identify what needs to be done’.”
His office is spacious with deep leather armchairs. He sits opposite us across a large wooden coffee table, an unruffled handsome man with a quiet dignity wearing the same sense of resignation we’ve encountered with others who have tried to take on Adani.
“Mr Adani is a very influential businessman here,” he says quietly. “Mr Adani has agreed to 30 or more conditions imposed by the State Government in Australia but he did not comply with conditions in his own country so he cannot be expected to comply with conditions in another country.”
Even though, by now, we are well and truly acquainted with the wrongdoings of this company we are shocked by his words.
He watches our faces.
Ramesh tells us that he and Gautam Adani have been “having a running battle since 2009” ever since the construction of the port at Mundra and when Adani ended up “destroying hundreds of thousands of acres of mangroves.
“When I was minister, I issued a notice to him but before I could take action, I took up another ministerial position. That created some complications for him … but when this government came to power,” he sighs, adding: “He is very influential … he is very well connected to the present government.”
Ramesh seems ready to give his views. He suggests we make the Adani project an international cause. He describes how a bauxite mine in India was stopped by a powerful locally-backed group as well as an international action which involved Bianca Jagger.
His smile is ironic. Chuckling, he tells us we have been making news even in the ‘interiors’ (regional newspapers) in India. He was once a newspaper columnist and he applauds us for the Open Letter to Adani signed, by among other celebrities, the Chappell brothers.
“I was out in the boondooks – the interior of India – with hardly any internet and the first thing I saw was this story about the Chappell brothers. Although you know Australian cricketers are not that well liked in India …”
There is much laughter.
“India’s biggest bank – the State Bank of India – when our Prime Minister went to Australia – he announced a billion loan for the project but then it was withdrawn. I’m told that due diligence was done by the bank and it was decided that they should not give the loan so they haven’t signed that loan.”
He said he knew of several people in the State Bank who had been concerned that Adani had yet to gain all of the clearances. “This was causing a lot of heartache.”
“Ultimately,” he adds, “it is the Australian people who will have to defeat this project. Your civil society and your media will have to fight a rearguard action.”
When I tell him about our Australian politicians telling the public that Australian coal will help the impoverished Indians, he laughs incredulously.
“That’s bullshit.”
“Mr Adani plays this card very skillfully. Talking about coal and poor people. It’s not the first time he’s done it.”
He adds later: “There are less environmentally disastrous ways of making India rich. There’s also less disastrous ways of lifting people up from poverty.”
“If India is putting in 100,000 MW of solar power that produces power at three rupees a unit,”147 Ramesh says. “why would they invest in a coal plant that will cost three times that?”
He rises gracefully to his feet and walks towards his large mahogany desk across the room picking up a framed photograph and bringing it back to the coffee table where we are sitting. We look at the picture. Six tigers, majestic and strong, stare back at us.
“This is a very unusual photograph,” Ramesh says. “Six tigers in one photograph. You never see six tigers … tigers are very solitary animals. It is unique. The only photograph in the world perhaps with six tigers. But, there’s a coal mine proposed here. These six tigers are in the area of a very big coal mine, which Mr Adani has been eyeing for the last 15 years and he almost got it. When I went there in 2010 I saw that it’s not only a huge tiger reserve,148 but also one of India’s richest teak forests. In the centre of India. It’s bang in the middle … I cancelled the application when I was Minister for Environment and Forests. Unfortunately, one of his biggest supporters was one of my own party members – one of my ministerial colleagues – but so far Adani hasn’t been able to get the allocation.149 He could get it any day and if this happens this entire tiger habitat gets destroyed.” Ramesh adds that Adani manages the media very well.
“Mr Adani thinks … he’s managed the Australian system as well.”
Outside Ramesh’s office, before stepping into a taxi and heading to the airport, Geoff Cousins announces he is flying from New Delhi straight to Canberra where, along with former Greens leader, Bob Brown, cajoled out of retirement, he will launch a campaign called Stop Adani at Parliament House in Ca
nberra.
The launch will take place on the same day we are due to arrive back in Australia, 22 March 2017.
“It will be bigger than anything we’ve seen since the Franklin Dam was stopped,” Cousins advises. “This mine will not go ahead. There are people training up now all over Australia to take on this fight.”
I want to believe him. But as I land at Brisbane airport, we seem like a forlorn group. Even if we have achieved world headlines, to what end?
I have filed some paragraphs with the juiciest quotes to submit to the Chief of Staff of my local newspaper, The Whitsunday Times, recently taken over by Rupert Murdoch. The story is brutally culled and relegated to the Letters to the Editor. Andrew Wilcox, the Mayor of the region, however, is treated to an 800-word article on a prominent inside page beefing up his achievements presumably to justify his hefty bill for his trip to India.
Australia? A land of protest? Where are these people? More importantly, how will they be galvanised? I stop short of scoffing at Cousin’s remarks. After all, he is a man of determination and he has invested so much already both personally and professionally on stopping this mine.
Chapter 8
The Swirling Dervish
The 29 March 2017, a week after I return from India, is our fourteenth wedding anniversary. We have booked a retreat halfway between our home in the Whitsundays and the coastal city of Mackay. Packing the car, Grant has already checked the weather. He’s been down to our boat and secured it with extra lines. A few days earlier a tropical low started to develop over the Coral Sea off Papua New Guinea. High sea temperatures of 29–30°C mean the low has an opportunity to intensify. It is cyclone season after all. We stop taking bookings and begin to literally batten down the hatches.