News Desk :
The Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corporation has decided not to be involved in any new coal-fired power generation business, potentially exiting the planned expansion of the Matarbari power plant in Bangladesh, according to a report.
A senior official at the project said the second phase of the project has not been finalised, so the appointment of a contractor has not been discussed, reports bdnews24.com
Sumitomo is building two units, each 600MW, for the thermal plant at Moheshkhali in Cox’s Bazar. The government is also setting up the country’s first deep-sea port at Payra to import coal for the plant under Bangladesh’s second-most costly project.
Toshiba and IHI Corporation are Sumitomo’s partners in the project, funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency or JICA.
In January, youth activists said Japan should stop funding the construction of the coal-fired power plant in Bangladesh as the emissions it produces will accelerate global warming and put the low-lying country at greater risk of climate-change impacts, Reuters news agency reported.
Sumitomo in a revision to its policies on climate change issues in February said it will not be involved in any new coal-fired power generation business, neither as an independent power producer nor in engineering, procurement or construction.
“For IPP business, we aim to reduce CO2 emissions by 60% or more by 2035 (compared to 2019) and we will end all the coal-fired power generation business in the late 2040s.”
“We will not make any further investment in the thermal coal mining interest and aim to achieve zero production from thermal coal mines by 2030.”
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