A Critical Conversation on Climate Change ... - Green Choices

offsets – the fossil economy’s new arena of conflict 281by Thailand’s Electricity Generating Public Company (EGCO)and 49 per cent by Japan’s Electric Power Development Company(EPDC).• Asia Plywood (AP), a Yala rubberwood processor, next to one ofwhose factories the plant would be located.• Det Norske Veritas (DNV), a Norwegian ‘risk management’ consultancywhich has managed to parlay its experience in certifyingthe credibility of pioneer carbon schemes such as Yala into a majorshare in CDM’s consultancy market.EPDC is a largely fossil-fuel-oriented company and the largest singleuser of coal in Japan. 122 It operates 66 coal- fired and hydropowerstations and burned usd 652 million in fossil fuels in 2001 alone. 123 Italso has an interest in six gas-fired power generating plants in operationor under construction in Thailand, totalling 2,733 megawatts. 124Nor, with a large new coal-fired power station under construction inYokohama, does EPDC contemplate any change of direction in thefuture. ‘Coal offers stable supply and outstanding economical efficiency,’says a company presentation, ‘hence we predict it will supportworld energy consumption throughout this century. Our great missionis to ensure that coal is burned cleanly, thus reducing the burdenon the environment.’ 125Accordingly, EPDC’s main response to global warming is coal gasification,which of course does nothing to halt the flow of fossil carbonto the surface, and the development of a nuclear power plant. ForEPDC, the point of investment in Yala would be to gain carboncredits to help it, and Japan generally, maintain current levels offossil -fuel combustion in the face of Kyoto pressures.EGCO is also largely structured around fossil-fuel technologies. Oneof EGCO’s gas-fired power stations, in fact, is operated in partnershipwith UNOCAL, a US multinational fossil-fuel firm that is anti-Kyoto Protocol and sceptical about climate change.Gulf Electric, meanwhile, with a mainly gas-fuelled generating capacity,has become well known in recent years partly due to the overwhelmingdefeat in March 2003 of its proposal to build a 734-megawattBo Nok coal-fired power plant on the Gulf of Thailand. Localpeople in Prachuab Khiri Khan province concerned about pollutionand other potentially destructive effects of the project had mounted asuccessful regional and national campaign against it. Following theirvictory against Gulf, the company moved quickly to propose a gasfiredsubstitute plant further up the coast.If any further evidence were required that the sponsoring firms are