Lae’s plan for coal slammed

MAYUR Resources keeps trying to green wash their Enviro Energy Park in Lae, saying they are focused on a better environmental outcome.
But they suggest building a coal power plant.
This doesn’t add up.
What does add up is the IPCC report pleading with the world to reduce emissions to limit global warming at 1.5-degree rise.
Paul Mulder, from Mayur, believes Papua New Guinea should get on the coal bandwagon because other Asian economies have coal and gas and are therefore of “economic note”.
Pollution and emissions is not what is making countries noteworthy these days.
Instead, hardly anyone supports building a new coal power plant.
The World Bank now has a policy against backing coal power plants and recently pulled out of the last coal power plant project it was considering to support in Kosovo because it cannot compete with renewable energy on price.
The Sierra Club explained that the decision by the World Bank recognises several key truths.
First, the public doesn’t want dirty coal.
Second, coal is a bad investment, because clean energy is cheaper than coal in places all over the world.
Third, if we want to curb the most catastrophic effects of the climate crisis, we have to move off coal immediately.
To electrify Papua New Guinea it is important that we get cheap, clean and reliable energy.
A lot of developing countries are figuring this out and doing the right thing to bring the cost of power down and consider the environment: Moving to renewables.
Yes, it is not only the traditional economies like Sweden, Germany and Denmark that embrace renewables.
Consider these three examples:
Small but mighty Costa Rica meets a huge amount of its energy needs (99 per cent in 2015) using hydroelectric, geothermal, solar, wind, and other low-carbon sources.
Nicaragua saw renewables comprise up to 54 per cent of all electricity production in June 2015.
How they did it? In 2007, the then-president began emphasising renewable energy investments.
By 2012, Nicaragua invested the fifth-highest percentage worldwide of its Gross domestic product (GDP) in developing renewable energy.
Uruguay is now 95 per cent powered by renewables after less than 10 years of concerted effort.
The country invested heavily in wind and solar with no subsidies or increases in consumer costs.
Their secrets?
Clear decision-making, a supportive regulatory environment, and a strong partnership between the public and private sector.
We can do the same in Papua New Guinea, we don’t need coal, and we have the best renewable resources in the world.

Ethan