Chattogram division is at high risk of being one of the world’s largest carbon catastrophes, said speakers at the launch of a study yesterday.
Once all the coal-fired power plants come into operation in the division, they will have disastrous consequences for the local ecology and waterways, communities and livelihoods, health as well as the climate, they said.
The study titled “A Carbon Catastrophe in the Making: The Dirty Energy Plans in Chattogram”, jointly conducted by Market Forces, Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA) and Waterkeepers Bangladesh, was unveiled at a press conference.
The government is moving ahead with almost two-thirds of its fossil fuel projects to be implemented in the Chattogram division.
The study highlighted the adverse impacts of the proposed 20 gigawatts (GW) of new coal and gas power capacity.
During the plants’ operational lifetime, there could be as much as 1.38 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, it said.
The most damaging of them is the Matarbari coal-fired power plant. If built, the health effects of air pollution from the Matarbari 1 and 2 projects would result in an estimated 6,700 premature deaths throughout their operational years.
The project also contradicts Japan’s 2021 G7 commitment to halt overseas coal financing.
The massive expansion of fossil fuel plants would be predominantly built or financed by foreign companies from Japan and the US.
“Companies such as Mitsubishi, JERA and General Electric are pushing for these projects so that they can profit from the expansion of toxic power plants, with little regard for the cost to Bangladesh and Bangladeshis,” said Sharif Jamil, general secretary of BAPA.
Investors in the companies need to be aware of the fact that Bangladeshis want investment in clean, cost-effective energy and not in polluting, expensive LNG, he added.
“Companies from Japan and the US should stop treating Bangladesh as one of the last dumping grounds for polluting power technology and instead help it meet its new power needs with clean, affordable and climate-friendly technologies,” said Julien Vincent, executive director of Market Forces, an environmental finance NGO focused on fossil fuel projects in Asia and Australia.
By 2030, subsequent LNG-to-power projects are estimated to cost an average of $960 million per GW, reaching close to $18 billion for Chattogram alone, which is six times more than Bangladesh’s 2022 budget to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change, according to the study.
Sumitomo Corporation, a Japanese conglomerate, withdrew from the Matarbari 2 coal plant, said Yuki Tanabe, programme director of Japan Centre for a Sustainable Environment and Society.
“Japanese private banks and investors are strengthening their climate policies dramatically. Coal and gas projects will not be financeable soon, even if by Japanese investors,” he added.
Bangladesh already has a significant overcapacity problem, the speakers said. About 60 percent of the installed capacity was not used in fiscal 2020-21.
The gap between power production capacity and actual demand has gradually increased over the last few years, states the report citing the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).
The government paid $1.6 billion to companies for underutilised power capacity in 2021.
On the other hand, the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) is calling for price hikes to offset the crippling expenses of buying power from independent power producers, shifting the financial burden of Bangladesh’s overcapacity crisis to electricity users, the report says.
According to IEEFA, Bangladesh’s economy would be exposed to a volatile price market from imported fuel and people would be forced to face financial risks that should have been borne by foreign private enterprises.
“Climate science and energy economists have made it clear: if we are serious about averting the climate catastrophe, we need to stop building new coal, gas, and oil projects,” the report said.
Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director at the Centre for Policy Dialogue, Sharmeen Murshid, chief executive of Brotee and also a member of the National River Conservation Commission, and Munira Chowdhury, research coordinator of Market Forces, also spoke among others.
