All articles
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China begins to suspend coal-fired power plant approvals, Greenpeace response
Beijing, 24 March, 2016 - Chinese media today reported that the country’s National Energy Administration (NEA) has ordered 13 provincial governments to suspend approvals of new coal-fired power plant projects until the end of 2017. [1] Another group of 15 provinces has been ordered to delay new construction of projects that have already been approved.…
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45% of China’s coal-fired power plants in areas of ‘water over-withdrawal’, Greenpeace
Beijing, 22 March, 2016 – 45% of coal-fired power plants in China are located in areas of ‘water over-withdrawal’, a ground-breaking Greenpeace study of the coal industry’s impact on the global water crisis shows. Every year these power plants consume quantities of water equivalent to the basic requirements of 186 million people. Moreover, 48% of…
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How the Coal Industry is Aggravating the Global Water Crisis
In its Global Risks Report 2015, the World Economic Forum stated “water security is one of the most tangible and fastest-growing social, political and economic challenges faced today.”1 Out of all industrial production, the coal industry represents one of the greatest demands on fresh water resources. The entire coal supply chain, including extraction, washing, coal-fired…
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How coal is sucking the life out of the Kuye River Basin
The Kuye River Basin in Northern China is already suffering from severe water stress. So why is the development of water-intensive coal power continuing to be permitted there?
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This World Forests Day, we’re celebrating the Congo Basin Rainforest- and how China could protect it.
It’s impossible to overstate the importance of forests to our lives and particularly the Congo Basin Rainforest. The world’s second largest rainforest spreads across six African countries and is…
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China’s 13th Five Year Plan hints at stronger climate ambition – Greenpeace
Beijing, 17 March 2016 - China's 13th Five Year Plan released today could indicate the world's largest carbon emitter will ramp its climate targets up within the next five years, just weeks after a recent paper also suggested that China’s emission may already have peaked.
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5 species bouncing back from the brink of extinction
Our planet is incredible and so are the creatures that inhabit it. Sadly, their homes are under threat. Every two seconds, an area of rainforest the size of a football field is lost to human destruction. Oceans are filling with plastic and everyday, illegal trade and poaching are threatening to wipe entire species off the…
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UPDATE: Is China doubling down on its coal power bubble?
In January-December 2015, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and provincial Environmental Protection Bureaus gave at least one positive permitting decision to a total of 210 coal-fired power plants with a total capacity of 169 gigawatts – four power plants per week. This surge of approvals seems to have resulted from China’s decision to decentralize authority…
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Greenpeace: In spite of China’s overcapacity crisis, 210 new coal fired power plants received environmental permits in 2015
Beijing, 2 March, 2016 – An updated Greenpeace East Asia report has found that in 2015 a total of 210 new coal fired power plants were granted environmental permits, in spite of the sector’s severe overcapacity problem. Moreover, the rate at which these redundant power plants are being approved by provincial governments was dramatically higher…
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China’s CO2 emissions continued to fall in 2015 – Greenpeace response
Beijing, 29 February, 2016 – Statistics released today by the National Bureau of Statistics show that a fall in China’s coal consumption and CO2 emissions continued for a second year in a row 2015. The fall in coal use over past two years was equal to Japan’s total yearly coal consumption. The trend is the…