• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
Is Equinor’s Bay du Nord ‘Delay’ a Cancellation in Slow Motion? June 1, 2023
Analyst Sees Oil and Gas Running Short of Cash as IEA Releases Energy Investment Update May 30, 2023
House of Commons Motion, Senate Bill Urge New Climate Rules for Financial Institutions May 30, 2023
13 Canadian Fossils Linked to Massive Losses in Western Wildfires May 30, 2023
Hamilton Plans Heat Bylaw for Rental Housing May 30, 2023
Next
Prev

Kenya’s First Coal Plant ‘Embodies Contradiction’ in China’s Climate Leadership

March 6, 2018
Reading time: 3 minutes

Erik (HASH) Hersman/Wikimedia Commons

Erik (HASH) Hersman/Wikimedia Commons

 

Kenya is considering building its first coal-fired generating station at the behest of China, in a deal that “embodies a contradiction of Chinese global climate leadership,” the New York Times reports.

The US$2-billion, 975-acre project, to be built by a Chinese multinational and financed in part by one of the country’s banks, is currently stalled in court. “The plan’s champions, including senior Kenyan officials, say the plant will help meet the country’s fast-growing demand for electricity and draw investment,” the Times states. “Its critics worry that it will damage the area’s fragile marine ecosystem, threaten the livelihoods of fishing communities, and pollute the air.”

  • The climate news you need. Subscribe now to our engaging new weekly digest.
  • You’ll receive exclusive, never-before-seen-content, distilled and delivered to your inbox every weekend.
  • The Weekender: Succinct, solutions-focused, and designed with the discerning reader in mind.
Subscribe

The project would be sited at Lamu, a 14th-century port town on the Indian Ocean that has been designated a world heritage site by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

“I see no reason for them to do it,” said UN Environment Programme Executive Director Erik Solheim, noting that a coal-fired power plant is “much less viable” against the falling cost of renewables. “They should invest heavily in hydro, solar, wind. They are already, but they could do even more.”

But for all that it is willing to inherit the sole mantle of global climate leadership, with the U.S. government in the hands of fossil-funded climate deniers, the Lamu project shows that China has policy conflicts of its own. “The country’s huge coal sector is turning outward in search of new markets as coal projects contract at home,” the Times reports. “The project is among hundreds of coal-fired power plants that Chinese companies are helping to build or finance around the world.”

At the moment, the project is on hold, stalled by a November 2016 lawsuit before Kenya’s National Environmental Tribunal. “For now, no smokestacks tower over the baobabs; the only signs of construction are concrete discs that demarcate the forest and farmland acquired for the plant.”

But the project has been approved by a semi-autonomous environmental management authority within Kenya’s environment department. And the plant’s proponent, Amu Power, said the project “would offer what Kenya needs most to attract investment: electricity to power a big road-and-rail project to connect its landlocked neighbors to a new port, also under construction in Lamu,” the Times reports. Company COO Cyrus Kirima said discharge water from the plant, which would use seawater for cooling, “would be warmed by about 5.0°F (2.8°C) but would not harm marine life,” the paper notes. He added that Kenya’s greenhouse gas emissions, even with the new plant, are a fraction of the output from industrialized countries.

“You need to do business,” he told the Times. “You need investment. It’s not as though Kenya is out in top gear to build coal plants.”

But China is a different story—the world’s 12th-largest coal plant developer, according to Urgewald, with 200 projects under development or receiving financing, according to Global Coal Tracker. “As China has reduced its dependence on coal domestically it has expanded overseas to relieve excess domestic capacity,” said Katharine Lu, energy investment analyst with Friends of the Earth.



in Africa, China, Coal, Community Climate Finance, Culture, Ending Emissions, Health & Safety, Hydropower, International Agencies & Studies, Solar, Wind

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-op/Facebook
Climate Action / "Blockadia"

‘Hinge Moment’ for Humanity Demands ‘YIMBY’ Mentality: McKibben

June 1, 2023
47
/Piqusels
Finance & Investment

Analyst Sees Oil and Gas Running Short of Cash as IEA Releases Energy Investment Update

May 31, 2023
588
Ryan Turnbull/Facebook
Legal & Regulatory

House of Commons Motion, Senate Bill Urge New Climate Rules for Financial Institutions

May 30, 2023
233

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Equinor

Is Equinor’s Bay du Nord ‘Delay’ a Cancellation in Slow Motion?

June 1, 2023
579
/Piqusels

Analyst Sees Oil and Gas Running Short of Cash as IEA Releases Energy Investment Update

May 31, 2023
588
Neal Alderson/Twitter

Out-of-Control Wildfire Burns Homes, Forces Evacuations Outside Halifax

May 29, 2023
2.6k
York Region/flickr

Hamilton Plans Heat Bylaw for Rental Housing

May 31, 2023
480
Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-op/Facebook

‘Hinge Moment’ for Humanity Demands ‘YIMBY’ Mentality: McKibben

June 1, 2023
47
Ryan Turnbull/Facebook

House of Commons Motion, Senate Bill Urge New Climate Rules for Financial Institutions

May 30, 2023
233

Recent Posts

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Notley

Notley Would Have Backed Carbon Capture Subsidies, Smith Less Certain: Ex-Pipeline Exec

June 1, 2023
75
Equinor

Equinor Delays Bay du Nord Offshore Oil Project, Blames ‘Volatile’ Markets

May 31, 2023
108
David Dodge, Green Energy Futures/flickr

Clean Energy to Add 700,000 New Jobs by 2050, with Alberta in the Lead

May 30, 2023
202
Martin Davis/Facebook

13 Canadian Fossils Linked to Massive Losses in Western Wildfires

May 30, 2023
594
David/flickr

Supreme Court Decision Undercuts U.S. Clean Water Act

May 30, 2023
79
Nicolas Rénac/Flickr

Climate Change to Cut Coffee Growing Lands by Over 50%

May 30, 2023
79
Next Post
Ramsey Martin/Pexels

1.5°C Depends on Rapid Emissions Peak Now, CCS Later, New Models Suggest

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}