DHAKA: A giant coal-fired power plant approved by Bangladesh could drastically worsen air pollution for millions and cause the early deaths of 6,000 people over its lifetime, Greenpeace said Friday.
Bangladesh is constructing the 1,320-megawatt power plant on the edge of the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest, despite warnings the controversial project threatens the fragile ecosystem and human health.
The UN has already urged Bangladesh to halt construction, warning it poses an unacceptable risk to the UNESCO-protected mangroves that provide a barrier against deadly storm surges and cyclones.
But in a new report Greenpeace warned emissions from the plant represented one of the single largest threats to air quality for millions living across Bangladesh and as far as neighboring India.
“Over its operational lifetime, the plant’s emissions will increase the risk of stroke, lung cancer, heart and respiratory diseases in adults, as well as respiratory symptoms in children,” stated the report released Friday.
“People in Dhaka and Calcutta (India), particularly children and the elderly, would also be harmed. Even if Bangladesh currently had zero air pollution, the plant alone would cause the premature deaths of 6,000 people, and low birth weights of 24,000 babies.”
The plant at Rampal in Bangladesh’s south-west could also deposit enough mercury to render fish unsafe to eat for millions living across the Bay of Bengal, and devastate the aquatic food chain of the Sundarbans.
The plant — a joint project by India and Bangladesh — would be powered by nearly five million tons of coal shipped every year along the mangroves’ fragile waterways, a natural habitat for endangered Bengal tigers and rare Irrawaddy dolphins.
Scheduled to open in 2018, the plant is projected to discharge nearly 125,000 cubic meters of chemically-tainted water every day into nearby water catchments, Greenpeace said.
The UN warned in October that the plant would “irreversibly damage” the pristine forest, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997.
The dense mangroves provide a buffer against violent weather roaring into the delta, which has killed thousands living in impoverished coastal villages and islands in recent years.
There was no immediate comment from Bangladeshi authorities or the joint-venture company bankrolling the $1.7-billion plant.
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has defended the project and rejected concerns about its impact as politically motivated.
The project has galvanized street protests in Bangladesh, with campaigners calling for the plant to be scrapped or relocated.
Bangladesh coal plant could cause 6,000 early deaths: Greenpeace
Bangladesh coal plant could cause 6,000 early deaths: Greenpeace
Carney says Canada has no plans to pursue free trade agreement with China as Trump threatens tariffs
Carney says Canada has no plans to pursue free trade agreement with China as Trump threatens tariffs
TORONTO: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday his country has no intention of pursuing a free trade deal with China. He was responding to US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 100 percent tariff on goods imported from Canada if America’s northern neighbor went ahead with a trade deal with Beijing.
Carney said his recent agreement with China merely cuts tariffs on a few sectors that were recently hit with tariffs.
Trump claims otherwise, posting that “China is successfully and completely taking over the once Great Country of Canada. So sad to see it happen. I only hope they leave Ice Hockey alone! President DJT”
The prime minister said under the free trade agreement with the US and Mexico there are commitments not to pursue free trade agreements with nonmarket economies without prior notification.
“We have no intention of doing that with China or any other nonmarket economy,” Carney said. “What we have done with China is to rectify some issues that developed in the last couple of years.”
In 2024, Canada mirrored the United States by putting a 100 percent tariff on electric vehicles from Beijing and a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum. China had responded by imposing 100 percent import taxes on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25 percent on pork and seafood.
Breaking with the United States this month during a visit to China, Carney cut its 100 percent tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on those Canadian products.
Carney has said there would be an initial annual cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports coming into Canada at a tariff rate of 6.1 percent, growing to about 70,000 over five years. He noted there was no cap before 2024. He also has said the initial cap on Chinese EV imports was about 3 percent of the 1.8 million vehicles sold in Canada annually and that, in exchange, China is expected to begin investing in the Canadian auto industry within three years.
Trump posted a video Sunday in which the chief executive of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association warns there will be no Canadian auto industry without US access, while noting the Canadian market alone is too small to justify large scale manufacturing from China.
“A MUST WATCH. Canada is systematically destroying itself. The China deal is a disaster for them. Will go down as one of the worst deals, of any kind, in history. All their businesses are moving to the USA. I want to see Canada SURVIVE AND THRIVE! President DJT,” Trump posted on social media.
Trump’s post on Saturday said that if Carney “thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken.”
“We can’t let Canada become an opening that the Chinese pour their cheap goods into the U.S,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“We have a , but based off — based on that, which is going to be renegotiated this summer, and I’m not sure what Prime Minister Carney is doing here, other than trying to virtue-signal to his globalist friends at Davos.”
Trump’s threat came amid an escalating war of words with Carney as the Republican president’s push to acquire Greenland strained the NATO alliance.
Carney has emerged as a leader of a movement for countries to find ways to link up and counter the US under Trump. Speaking in Davos before Trump, Carney said, “Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu” and he warned about coercion by great powers — without mentioning Trump’s name. The prime minister received widespread praise and attention for his remarks, upstaging Trump at the World Economic Forum.
Trump’s push to acquire Greenland has come after he has repeatedly needled Canada over its sovereignty and suggested it also be absorbed into the United States as a 51st state. He posted an altered image on social media this week showing a map of the United States that included Canada, Venezuela, Greenland and Cuba as part of its territory.
