Page 11 - AsiaElec Week 30 2021

AsiaElec COAL AsiaElec

Hyundai E&C announces coal exit

SOUTH KOREA SOUTH Korea’s Hyundai Engineering and Con- They claimed that the project has vast climate
struction will not take on any new coal power change impact and detailed the complaints from
construction projects, although it will finish cur- local communities in Vietnam that they had not
rent projects in Vietnam and elsewhere across been appropriately compensated and remained
Asia. concerned about environmental pollution.
Hyundai H&C said in a letter to a coalition The letter also warned the deal would
of civil society groups on 21 July that it had be viewed “as one of the worst examples of
decided to “totally exclude the possibility” of greenwashing”.
participation in any newly built coal-fired power Claims that the coal industry can clean up its
plant projects either in South Korea or abroad, act and play a role in the energy transition have
subsequent to the fulfilment of contractual com- been on the rise across Asia, with novel combus-
mitments to ongoing projects, Eco-Business tion technologies allegedly capable of delivering
reported. net efficiency rates of up to 47.5%, higher than
Hyundai E&C CEO Young-Joon Yoon said the global average of 34%.
the company had reviewed the climate threats However, such coal projects still produce
associated with coal and “came to a conclusion CO2 and cannot be regarded as green, as they
to officially release the ‘Hyundai E&C declara- still contribute to climate change.
tion on Coal Exit’”. Seoul-based climate policy advocacy group
Yoon said the firm had “become more aware Solutions for our Climate (SFOC) has responded
of the visible, sometimes invisible, risks of coal to Hyundai E&C’s latest letter, calling on the con-
power projects” and was determined to trans- struction company to withdraw from its latest
form its business strategies in response to the cli- coal venture.
mate crisis, pursuing “sustainable growth” that In a statement, it said the decision to back the
“goes beyond improving short-term business project reflected an “alarming trend” of South
performance”. Korean firms still pursuing coal business abroad
However, the group of South Korean climate that undermined the government’s ambition
change campaigners said that Hyundai’s E&C’s to end state funding of coal power overseas, a
bid was at odds with its commitment to environ- pledge President Moon Jae-in made in April this
mental, social and corporate governance (ESG) year.
principles, laid out in its ‘2050 Global Green One Sejong Youn, SFOC’s climate finance pro-
Pioneer’ vision. gramme director, said the plan to build the plant
Last month, Hyundai E&C was selected as “defeats the sincerity of the company’s coal exit,
one of the contractors for the construction of the and contradicts its own attempts to build a rep-
1,200-MW Quang Trach 1 power plant by Viet- utation as a forward-thinking and sustainable
namese state-utility EVN, along with Vietnam’s company”.
No. 1 Construction Corp. and Japan’s Mitsubi- “In the face of growing concern about the
shi. The $1.8bn project is slated to be completed climate crisis, investors and customers will no
within 48 months. doubt be shocked that Hyundai would still take
Young defended the firm’s involvement in a financial and reputational gamble. This affects
Quang Trach 1, stressing that it was a “national not just Hyundai E&C but reflects poorly on the
priority” for the Southeast Asian nation to Hyundai Group as a whole,” added Youn.
address rising power shortages amid rapid Hyundai Motors, the largest shareholder of
energy demand growth. Hyundai E&C, recently joined the RE100 initi-
The plant would also be equipped with less ative, a global group of corporates committed to
polluting ultra-supercritical coal combustion using renewables in their operations.
technology and other emissions control technol- SFOC added that Hyundai E&C’s decision
ogies to reduce environmental harm, he added. was all the more surprising given the controversy
Hyundai E&C’s letter comes in response around another recent coal deal, the 1,000-MW
to another letter sent by civil society groups Cirebon 2 coal-fired plant in Indonesia, in which
Mekong Watch, Market Forces, Friends of the Hyundai E&C admitted to bribing the former
Earth Japan and Fridays for Future to the con- district head of Cirebon to muffle local resistance
struction firm earlier this week. to the project.™

Week 30 28•July•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P11