Adani’s thermal power coal power project Grid connected energy efficient power generation (project ref#: 2716) is located in the state of Gujarat, India. This Ultra Mega Power Project is a 1320 megawatt power project comprised of two 660MW units. It was the first supercritical coal power project that was registered under the CDM on 16 December 2009. This coal plant provides power for the port and associated industrial park that, spanning over 100 square kilometers in the largest economic development zone in India.
As the first coal power project to receive carbon credits, the Mundra project has received about 600.000 carbon credits for the period February 2011 to March 2012. Although the French energy giant EDF Trading has informally stated that they are no longer involved in the project, they remain listed as the buyer on the UNFCCC CDM website.
The Project Design Document (PDD) was conducted on the basis of an erroneous social and environmental impact assessment that failed to recognize fishing communities, salt-pan workers and pastoralists as potentially affected stakeholders. These communities have not been consulted before the implementation of the project and no relevant information has been made accessible in the local languages. Due to the depletion of groundwater and the destruction of mangroves as a result of the constructions for the project, the availability and accessibility of fish is negatively influenced, constituting a threat to the livelihood of the local population.
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Moreover the Mundra project is awarded carbon credits based on flawed CDM crediting rules that allow significant over-crediting. The CDM Executive Board suspended the crediting methodology for these projects (ACM0013) in 2011. However, projects registered before that date, such as the Mundra project, are still using the old – flawed – methodology.
Concerns about both, additionality as well as negative impacts on the local ecosystems were raised early for ‘Mundra Ultra Mega Power Project‘. In addition to carbon dioxide, coal plants emit large amounts of air pollutants including: sulfur dioxide, which contributes to acid rain; nitrous oxide, a precursor to ozone that harms human health and also contributes to global warming; and other toxic air pollutants including mercury and fly ash. Yet the environmental, human health and social harms are nowhere discussed in the report. This type of superficial treatment of the impacts of the project environment and local stakeholders further risks undermining the legitimacy of CDM projects.
Ultimately, however, the folly lies not in the inaccuracies in the case of the Mundra project or flaws in the methodology itself, but rather in the very notion of devoting scarce CDM funds to construct new coal plants that will spew greenhouse gases for the next 25 years.
What we are calling for:
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Read the report about the Adani Mundra CDM project here
For more information about the irony of funding coal power through the CDM, Read more…
Views from Network members:
- OPEN LETTER to Dr. A. Duraisamy, Director & Member Secretary National CDM Authority, India demanding to withdraw the approval letter for Adani Power’s registered CDM project
- Letter to Dr Jim Yong Kim, President – World Bank Group: Recognize the massive social and environmental violations by Tata-Mundra and IFC; withdraw funding to CGPL; ensure reparation to the social, environmental and economic damages caused by IFC lending.
- Submission to public call for input to NCDMA: Specific criteria for the assessment of the sustainable development / monitoring plan for sharing of 2% CERs
