Esi Africa-The NPO looked at new construction starts, a key indicator of coal power capacity growth. They have established that construction on coal plants globally, excluding China, was under 2GW. This is well below the almost 16 GW annual average for the same set of countries over the past eight years (2015 to 2022).
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However, despite numerous economic, political and social obstacles slowing down finding support to new coal plants, GEM sees the coal sector displaying resilience in some regions:
- While the updated Global Coal Plant Tracker highlights how erratic ongoing project and financing arrangements are for developments in Southeast Asia, the potential of the projects persevere, even amidst tenuous political and economic situations;
- Local and regional banks have stepped in to secure gaps left by international ones. For example, Indonesia coal miner Adaro struggled to secure finding for its Aluminium Smelter Power Station from international financiers because of climate commitments and other obstacles. But it eventually reached a deal in May 2023 with Indonesian domestic banks.
- A recent investigation by Inclusive Development International, Recourse and Trend Asia shows that the International Finance Corporation continues to indirectly back some of Asia’s largest coal developers.
- There is a suggestion that financiers may shift towards offering corporate finance rather than project finance.
Photo by Furqan Qurthubi/Trend Asia