World Resources Institute identifies 1,200 coal plants in planning across 59 countries, with about three-quarters in China and India
Damian Carrington
The Guardian [UK]
19 November 2012
More than 1,000 coal-fired power plants are being planned worldwide, new research has revealed.
The huge planned expansion comes despite warnings from politicians, scientists and campaigners that the planet’s fast-rising carbon emissions must peak within a few years if runaway climate change is to be avoided and that fossil fuel assets risk becoming worthless if international action on global warming moves forward.
Coal plants are the most polluting of all power stations and the World Resources Institute (WRI) identified 1,200 coal plants in planning across 59 countries, with about three-quarters in China and India. The capacity of the new plants add up to 1,400GW to global greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of adding another China – the world’s biggest emitter. India is planning 455 new plants compared to 363 in China, which is seeing a slowdown in its coal investments after a vast building programme in the past decade…
…A structural shift has moved the bulk of the international coal trade from the Atlantic, serving Europe and the US, to the Pacific. China became a net importer of coal in 2009 but the biggest changes are fast-rising imports by Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, which all have large numbers of coal-fired plants but produce virtually no coal of their own.
However, Germany, the UK and France remain in the top 10 importers, and coal use rose 4% in 2011 in Europe as prices fell and plants due to close under clean air rules use up their allotted running hours. Indonesia and Australia are the largest coal exporters, with the latter planning to triple its mine and port capacity to almost 1bn tonnes a year.
Many developing countries, such as Guatemala, Cambodia, Morocco, Namibia, Senegal and Sri Lanka, and Uzbekistan, are planning new coal-fired plants even when they produce almost no coal at all…
The entire article is at The Guardian.
Related: WJAC-TV In Pennsylvania Investigates Local Impact of Coal Industry, EPA Regulations
‘With all the regulations the EPA is putting on the power plants and that, people are starting to get scared off.’ — ‘They’ve eliminated a lot of jobs. They’re going to make the generation of electricity more expensive in this state’
‘The huge planned expansion comes despite warnings from politicians, scientists that fast-rising carbon emissions must peak…if runaway climate change is to be avoided’
Climate Depot Response: ‘Let’s all laugh at ‘runaway climate change’. Energy poverty is a death sentence. Coal and carbon based energies are one of the greatest liberators of mankind in world history.’
Britain Announces Halt to Onshore Windfarms
British officials are putting an end to new onshore wind farm construction, halting an energy experiment that has produced little usable electricity while draining the finances of British taxpayers and electricity consumers.
Energy Minister John Hayes stunned renewable power lobbyists by announcing the government will approve no more wind farm proposals. Hayes said enough wind farms have been built to meet Britain’s renewable energy goals, so there is no need to blot the British landscape with more wind turbines.
“We can no longer have wind turbines imposed on communities,” said Hayes in a press statement. “I have asked the planning minister to look again at the relationship between these turbines and the landscape.”…
