Many coal projects in Bangladesh were abandoned, but not on the scale in accordance to government announcements in 2020, says Global Energy Monitor (GEM).
The eighth annual survey of the coal plant pipeline, released on Tuesday said, 2.6 gigawatts (GW) of coal power entered construction in 2021, raising the number of plants under construction from four to six, for a total of 6.7 GW.
If completed, the plants would nearly quadruple the 1.8 GW coal power capacity currently operating in Bangladesh.
It said, 10.8 GW of coal capacity was cancelled in 2021, doubling the amount cancelled since 2015 (22.8 GW).
In addition, at the end of 2021, the country still had another 10.8 GW of proposed coal power in pre-construction.
“In Bangladesh, a combination of high coal prices and guaranteed purchase agreement are putting consumers and the Bangladesh Power Development board in a tough situation,” said Flora Champenois of GEM.
“The false promise of coal being easy and cheap has turned out not to be true, and the country’s dependence on coal is becoming an increasing drag on its economy.”
“Continuing coal plant pollution in a highly populated delta invites humanitarian catastrophe,” said Sharif Jamil, general secretary of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon and coordinator of Waterkeepers Bangladesh.
“Bangladesh needs to reassess its electricity demand and stop construction and operation of any coal plants for the sake of its people, the environment, and its economy.”
GEM’s ‘Boom and Bust Coal 2022’report finds that after rising in 2020, for the first time since 2015, total coal power capacity under development across the world declined 13 per cent last year, from 525 GW to a record low 457 GW.
A total of 34 countries have new coal plants under consideration, down from 41 in January 2021.
China, South Korea, and Japan notably pledged to stop funding new coal plants in other countries, but China continued to lead all countries in domestic development of new coal plants, commissioning more coal capacity than the rest of the world combined.
“Many emerging economies have cut back their plans for new coal-fired capacity, with the largest reductions happening in India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Egypt. Developed countries have announced new phase-out targets and plant retirements. Now countries with net-zero emission targets but without a coal phase-out plan aligned with those targets need to step up,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, the lead analyst for Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
The report also noted that the amount of electricity generated from coal rose by 9.0 per cent in 2021 to a record high, more than rebounding from a 4.0 per cent fall in 2020 that was caused in part by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Progress was made in 2021 on establishing future retirement dates for operating plants, with the number of coal plants effectively given a close-by date nearly doubling to 750 coal plants (550 GW).
