Over 4 in 5 of Asean fossil fuel power plants clash with UN climate goals: report

Most of the plants don’t meet the emissions thresholds for keeping global temperatures within 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Bloomberg reports that nearly 84% of fossil fuel power plants in Southeast Asia are incompatible with future scenarios that avoid catastrophic damage from climate change, a study by the University of Oxford revealed.

The analysis is based on the amount of carbon expected to be emitted over the lifespan of the plants. These are then compared to the amount of carbon can be released without the earth reaching the ceiling for temperature increases at 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Ben Caldecott, one of the study's authors, said, "We are moving away from a situation where groups can make unsubstantiated claims about how their assets or investments are aligned with climate change mitigation or the Paris agreement."

About 88% of existing and 56% of planned fossil fuel power plants, including gas-fired facilities, in the Asean region don’t meet the emissions thresholds for keeping global temperatures within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels, the author added. About 18% of existing and 47% of planned units are incompatible with a less-stringent goal of keeping temperature rise within 2 degrees.

Vietnam, which has the region’s largest fleet of fossil fuel-fired assets, has almost 87% of its 314 current and planned plants incompatible with a 1.5-degree scenario, according to the report. Half of the plants don’t meet the 2-degree threshold and 20% not even a 3-degree limit.

Read the full report here.