India and Bangladesh on Wednesday jointly opened a coal-fired power plant near one of the world's largest mangrove forests, despite environmental criticism in both nations saying it threatens millions of people's livelihoods.
The 1320-megawatt Maitree Super Thermal Power Project is set to burn 4.75 million tonnes of coal annually, and begins operations weeks ahead of the UN COP28 climate conference in Dubai.
The plant, built in Bangladesh, is close to the UNESCO world heritage site of Sundarbans, one of the world's largest mangrove forests.
Environmentalists say the power plant threatens the livelihoods for about two million people in the Sundarbans and could violate the UN's Ramsar Convention to protect wetlands.
The first half of the $2 billion power plant -- financed with a $1.6 billion loan from India -- went online last year.
The two leaders also inaugurated cross-border railway and port links between their countries.
"These projects are a shining example of win-win cooperation between our countries," Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday, in a virtual ceremony with India's Narendra Modi.
Dhaka buys at least a million tonnes of Indian coal annually, but the dirty fuel for the new plant will be sourced from Bangladesh.
The power plant will "enhance energy security in Bangladesh", India's foreign ministry said in a statement.
Global leaders failed to agree to a phase-out of fossil fuels at September's G20 summit in New Delhi, but they backed a target of tripling global renewable energy capacity, and acknowledged that limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius will require slashing greenhouse gases 43 percent by 2030 from 2019 levels.
COP28 will draw up the first official assessment of humanity's efforts to respect the 2015 agreement and its ambition to limit global warming "if possible to 1.5 degrees C" since the pre-industrial era.
The global climate, over several years, is considered to have already warmed by about 1.2C, accompanied by a procession of natural disasters.
German finance minister casts doubt on 2030 coal exit
Berlin (AFP) Nov 1, 2023 -
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner on Wednesday called into question the government's aim to end coal use in Europe's largest economy by 2030.
"Until it is clear that energy is available and affordable, we should end dreams of phasing out electricity from coal in 2030," Lindner said in an interview with the German daily Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger.
"Now is not the time to shut down power plants," he added.
Germany ought to "enable the expansion of renewable energies more quickly" and expand domestic gas production, said Lindner, who also leads the pro-business FDP party.
Lindner's comments threaten to deepen division within the ruling coalition between Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats, the Greens and the FDP, where ministers have clashed over how to respond to higher energy prices while reducing fossil fuel usage.
The coal exit date is a plank in Germany's project to produce 80 percent of its electricity from renewables by 2030 and the coalition aims "ideally" to close all coal-fired plants within the same timeframe.
The agreement brings forward the exit date agreed by the government of former Chancellor Angela Merkel's to quit coal by 2038.
Germany's plans to decarbonise energy production were thrown into disarray by Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent cut to sorely needed gas supplies from Russia.
Th
e turn of events, punctuated by the sabotage of a key pipeline, sent energy prices soaring and left Germany looking for new sources of energy.
The government brought mothballed coal plants back online to take the pressure off of gas-based electricity production, with the reactivated fleet available through March 2024.
At the same time, Berlin has pledged to cut red tape for installing wind turbines to meet the ambitious target, but observers say the pace is still too slow.
Germany also shut off its last remaining nuclear power plants in April this year, a long-planned step, which some critics said could make it harder to hit climate targets.
Indonesia lays out emissions roadmap for $20 bn energy transition pact
Jakarta (AFP) Nov 1, 2023 -
Indonesia slashed carbon emissions targets for its power sector by 2030 and pledged to boost the share of renewable energy in a roadmap it released on Wednesday as it seeks to wean itself off coal.
Southeast Asia's largest economy is attempting to reach net-zero power sector emissions by 2050 in return for financing for the $20 billion Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) plan.
Under the plan, Jakarta has pledged to slash its power sector carbon emissions to a peak of 250 million metric tonnes by 2030, down from a previous cap of 290 million.
It also plans to boost its renewable energy generation share to 44 percent by 2030, up from an initial target of 34 percent, the planning document released on Wednesday said.
The billion-dollar public and private financing for the plan, released last year, follows a model first trialled in South Africa and then announced for Vietnam and Senegal, with rich countries pledging funds for the developing world's energy transition.
Jakarta is reportedly unhappy about the JETP deal's proposed mix of financing, worried it will be offered mostly market-rate loans that saddle it with debt.
But it laid out more ambitious targets in the document, titled the Comprehensive Investment and Policy Plan (CIPP), noting that it was not binding.
"The CIPP is a living document, which means that this... will be updated on an annual basis," Edo Mahendra, head of the JETP Indonesia secretariat, said in a statement.
It was published for public consultation, with a final document to be sent out before the COP28 climate summit in the United Arab Emirates that begins later this month.
The United States, Japan, Canada and six European nations signed the deal with Indonesia -- one of the world's top coal exporters and coal power generators -- to shift it away from its coal reliance.
Jakarta's new figures in Wednesday's document fail to account for a number of new "captive" coal plants, which power factories rather than feeding into the grid.
But the JETP secretariat said Indonesia and the signatory countries "share a strong commitment to identifying and implementing viable solutions going forward".
Indonesia has pledged to stop building new coal-fired power plants but, despite an outcry from activists, it is continuing to build plants that were already planned.
It is also trying to position itself as a key player in the electric vehicle market as the world's largest nickel producer, but some industrial parks that host energy-guzzling nickel smelters are powered by coal.
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