The World Bank is now the major source for financing of new coal-fired power plants in the less developed nations. This policy is justified on the grounds that new coal plants are less polluting than old ones and that the plants are needed to assure electricity supply to the poor. Both claims are wrong, as [...]
Archive for the ‘coal’ Category
The World Bank as a major environmental criminal
Posted in coal on August 10, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
A fraction of the jobs
Posted in coal on April 9, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
A report by the research group Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies compared estimates and real world data from jobs creation from building new coal plants. Using as a sample the six biggest coal plants which became operational in the 2005-2009 period, the report shows that the jobs actually created amount to a mere 56% of what was [...]
Scientific evidence against coal use piles up
Posted in coal on February 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Two new studies have shown that coal is scarcer, more expensive and dirtier than its proponents argue (Post Carbon Institute). Let’s look at them in detail. The first, published on Nature, argues that coal production will be lower than estimated, so its price will rise perhaps as soon as the end of this decade. The [...]
World Bank still trashing the climate
Posted in coal on October 7, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
In the fiscal year of 2009-10, the World Bank invested $4.4bn in new coal plants (Guardian). This is a new record, that follows a steep increase in funding for coal since 2006, when the investment was of $119m (data from Bank Information Center). The Bank also invested $1bn in oil and gas projects. Thew official [...]
A new huge coal plant planned for South Africa… with financing from the World Bank
Posted in coal on April 10, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Yerterday, the World Bank approved a loan to the South African company Eskom for it to build a new 4800 MW coal plant. The plant will emit 30 million tons of CO2 per year, making a mockery of promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one of the first signatories of the Copenhagen Accord. To [...]
The high cost of coal
Posted in coal on April 7, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Manic Miner We’ve grown accustomed to the constant death of Chinese miners. The news about a new disaster in a Chinese coal mine didn’t come as a surprise, then. In fact, the surprise was the fact that most of the miners miraculously escaped death surviving for a week underground (Seattle Times). But, at the same [...]
World Bank finances coal in India
Posted in coal on June 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The World Bank is going to lend US$180 million to India to modernize its old coal plants (link). With this investment, the WB assures that India will continue to use coal for decades, delaying its transition away from fossil fuels. And what is the main argument to justify this action? Lowering carbon emissions. Right.
Mountain top removal approved by Obama
Posted in coal on June 7, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The green credentials of the new US President are fading away. First, he refused to review the law that impedes NGO’s from suing fossil fuel companies for destructing polar bear’s natural habitat. Now, he gave his permission for more than twenty new coal mining projects in the Appalachian mountains (Chicago Tribune). The coal extraction process [...]
The saga of the Kingsnorth Six
Posted in coal, direct action, tagged videos on May 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Last year, a group of Greenpeace activists climbed a smokestack from Kingsnorth coal power station to protest against UK government’s plans for investment in coal expansion. At The Guardian we can see an excellent docummentary (20 mins) about their quest and their huge success. Great.
