By Ifham Nizam

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the fourth plant of the Norochcholai coal power complex had not yet been conducted, a project official yesterday told The Island.

He said that EIA was to be conducted by the Central Environmental Authority (CEA) following a request from the CEB. China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC), which is to construct the fourth plant, however, would not be involved in the EIA process, the official assured

The senior official said that the final decision on the construction of the fourth unit would only be taken by the new government to be formed. He added that people and industrialists had reduced electricity use. Coal consumption too had decreased this year.

Global Energy Monitor (GEM,) a non-governmental organisation which catalogues worldwide fossil fuel infrastructure, in a recent report, said that even before Covid-19, new coal plant construction was slowing in Asia. The pandemic further accelerated the region’s transition away from the fossil fuel as it caused delays in coal plant construction, the study said.

Only one gigawatt (GW) of coal power was newly proposed in the Asia region. This is almost a 70 per cent drop from the average 2.9GW of new proposals and 2.7GW of new construction every six months in the region since 2015, said the study’s lead author Christine Shearer.

“I do think Coved will [continue to] accelerate the transition away from coal in Southeast Asia,” said Shearer, who is also the director of GEMs coal programme.

“Covid is also lowering projections of future energy demand, at least in the near-term, and with its higher fuel costs over solar and wind, plans for new coal plants may be among the first to be cut.”