JAPAN TIMES!!!!!11 Dec 2019 09:54
Huge Pakistan mine shows the power of coal
dd to Pakistan’s woes a crippling shortage of energy. Although the government has made progress in tackling the power deficit, blackouts are a way of life. Tens of millions of people aren’t connected to the grid. In 2015 inefficiencies in the power sector cost the economy $18 billion — 6.5 percent of gross domestic product. When it comes to power, says James Stevenson, Sydney-based senior director for global coal research at IHS Markit Ltd., “It’s having it or not that matters, not where it comes from. Governments wanting to be elected want people to have electricity. That’s why coal has momentum.”
"The workers digging in the mine in the Thar are Pakistani and Chinese. China will provide financing — from 50 percent to 90 percent of total costs — for $60 billion in projects to upgrade Pakistan’s transport and energy infrastructure, making the South Asian country a standout partner of Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative. Of the 10 biggest Belt and Road power projects, eight are in Pakistan, and five of those are coal-fired."