Prayas (Energy Group) and Centre for Policy Research organised the second roundtable on “Managing a fair transition away from coal in India’, on 20th & 21st  January, 2021. This event followed the first iteration of the roundtable, held in December 2019, which served as a conversation starter on the transition away from coal that is already underway in the country. The transition discourse has since further evolved, with key analyses from several research groups and important policy notifications from central and state governments.

The second roundtable was convened with the agenda of discussing the emerging analyses and possible avenues of managing the transition in a timely and just manner. The two-day online event was split into moderated sessions to facilitate focused discussions and were based on the following broad themes:

• Phasing out coal-fired power
• Political economy of coal
• Communities and environment: ground-level insights

The event concluded with a session dedicated to open-ended discussions and deliberations on the way forward.

Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the event was held virtually on Zoom. The invitation-only event was attended by 37 participants from various grassroots organisations, research groups, academic institutions, and consultancies.  The varied and rich discussions at the roundtable brought to focus key areas of discourse and action that would be essential toward a just and smooth transition.

Based on the deliberations at the round-table, over 20 of the participants came together to sign a collective statement on the issues and priorities to be addressed in order to enable and manage a fair transition away from coal in India.