One of the last countries in the world to support coal-fired electricity generation overseas is considering financing new capacity in Bangladesh.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency last week said in an e-mail that it is conducting an environmental and social impact assessment for an expansion to the Matarbari power plant.
The agency already agreed to finance the first 1.2 gigawatt phase of the project, which is scheduled for completion in 2024, but has not decided if it will finance the expansion, which would double the facility’s capacity.
“In spite of difficulties, my government decided to do a survey and research on unit 3 and 4,” Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Naoki Ito told a webinar hosted by the Centre for Policy Dialogue in Bangladesh on Thursday last week, referring to the expansion.
Changing climate policies have led Japan to scrap dozens of plans for new coal plants, he said.
Japan in August last year agreed to support expanding the Matarbari plant, with three additional units planned in a second phase of construction, said a Japanese government official, who asked not to be identified citing policy.
However, Japan has not yet formally committed to providing loans for the second phase, the official said.
Institutions providing financing for coal-fired generation are under increasing pressure from investors to exit the sector amid fears that the facilities will become stranded assets that pose financial risk, as governments seek to decarbonize economies.
The agency’s decision whether to finance the Matarbari expansion would not affect its credit rating as long as it is tied to the Japanese government, Rating And Investment analyst Atsushi Moriya said.
The government agency provides overseas aid in developing countries.
The expansion might prove awkward for Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who has pledged to make Japan carbon neutral by 2050.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but
RSS