U.S. Will Not Provide Financing For New International Coal-Fired Power Plants

Dorianny writes "The Treasury Department declared it would no longer support any new coal-fired power plants around the world. By leading a coalition of like-minded countries including several European ones that have already announced similar intentions, they will effectively be able to block the World Bank and other international development banks from providing financing for new coal-fired plants. The policy is unlikely to amount to any real change as 75 percent of proposed coal-powered plants are in China and India, which do not rely on outside financing. It seems to me that the poorest, most underdeveloped nations that contribute the least to global emissions are the ones getting the short end of the stick from this policy."

Comments

Re:FTFY

[wytcld]

Coal isn't the smartest tech to develop in the truly undeveloped areas anyway. Cost per kilowatt calculations in the first world assume that a high-voltage grid is already in place. Even with a high-voltage grid in place, solar and wind are close to parity with coal in many parts of the first world now. Lacking the high-voltage distribution, localized solar and wind - and biomass in some places - are overall at the advantage, because they can be used closer to where they're generated. Nobody puts a small coal-powered generator in their backyard, or next to their factory or hospital. On the other hand I have friends with solar in their backyard, and they live normal American lives with it, firing up gas generators only a few dark winter days a year. Most of the third world doesn't have dark winter days.

Re:FTFY

[Anonymous Coward]

"Now 22, Kamkwamba wants to build windmills across Malawi and perhaps beyond. Next summer he also plans to construct a drilling machine to bore 40-meter holes for water and pumps. His aim is to help Africans become self-sufficient and resolve their problems without reliance on foreign aid."

Where is his nobel peace prize? Seriously this is the kind of thing Africa just needs a few hundred more of, since in the history of "financial aid" no nation has ever scraped out of poverty by getting deep into debt (don't try to use Indonesia as an example).

Re:FTFY

[microbox]

Coal is by far cheapest and most economical however,

This is simply not true. Not only is it untrue, but solar/wind will be much cheaper than coal in just a few years. The technology is really moving that fast.

Re: Carbon is carbon

[TheCarp]

I loved this idea so much I had to find it, took one google image search:
http://twentytwowords.com/2011/06/21/cavemen-and-the-problem-with-living-organically/

Of course there is a great comment by "Jeff" if you scroll down a bit on that page:

So as an evolutionary biologist I guess Iâ(TM)m not much fun to point out that skeletal evidence suggests that most hunter-gatherers before the invention of agriculture actually lived well into their 60âs and 70âs if they made it past child-hood. Unfortunately hunting and gathering can only support small populations and they were displaced by populations that engaged in agriculture. Ag allows for large populations on small amounts of land because of intensification of resource extraction. This led to the rise of cities (and more influentially armies) since not every member of the society had to produce their own food. This also led to extremely poor sanitary conditions and the beginning of the first âcrowdâ(TM) diseases like influenza and syphilis. These types of societies came to dominate human territories and it is these arrangements we associate with ânot living past 30â. Ok Iâ(TM)m done, sorry.

So save that comic for the next time you want to blow an evolutionary biologists top off :)