Smoke spewing galore

Despite the scientific community’s warnings about catastrophic global warming, the coal industry is expanding in a major way.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) identified plans for about 1,200 new coal-fired plants across 59 countries, about three-quarters of which will be in India and China, according to the UK’s Guardian newspaper.

The new facilities will produce 1,400 gigawatts of energy—equivalent to that of China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. India and China are planning 455 and 363 new plants, respectively.

“This is a scary number of coal-fired plants being planned,” said Guy Shrubsole of Friends of the Earth. “It is clear the vested interests of coal companies are driving this forward and that they will have to be reined in by governments.”

“This is definitely not in line with a safe climate scenario—it would put us on a really dangerous trajectory,” noted WRI’s Ailun Yang.