NOT GREENWASHING

South African Province Clears Way for $10 Billion Coal Complex

Antony Sguazzin, Bloomberg News

African workers stand beneath a work safety sign at the construction site for a hydro pumping station which will supply water from the Limpopo river to nearby rice farms owned by Wanbao Grains & Oils Co., a Chinese company, in the Limpopo Valley near Xai Xai village, Mozambique, on Friday, March 24, 2017. The granaries and surveillance cameras in this corner of southern Mozambique were part of a wave of Chinese investment in overseas farms and agriculture companies a decade ago that sparked accusations of a land-grab as the Asian country tried to secure enough food for its future. Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) --

South Africa’s Limpopo province gave environmental authorization to a China-backed proposal to spend more than $10 billion building a 4,600 megawatt coal-fired power plant, a coking facility and ferroalloy and steel plants.

The authorization, granted on Wednesday, backed the establishment of the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone, in which a number of Chinese companies have pledged to invest, according to South Africa’s Trade, Industry and Competition ministry. 

The project, which is not factored into the country’s emissions targets, may still be opposed by the government at a national level and will draw opposition from activists concerned about its impact on thousands of Baobab trees, which take hundred of years to grow, water supplies and air pollution. 

The Chinese government has also said it won’t invest in coal projects outside the country.

The province acknowledged the potential impact on ancestral graves, cautioned against air pollution, saying measures would need to be taken to mitigate emissions and water will be imported from neighboring Zimbabwe. Still, in justifying the decision, it said the province is South Africa’s poorest and has high unemployment.

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