As Sihanoukville rises, Peng Mom and Phok Nge\u2019s plight is set to worsen. A third coal plant is about to descend upon their neighbourhood.<\/p>\n It will be shipped over 1,600 kilometres from the\u00a0Chinese province of Hunan.<\/p>\n There a retired coal plant is being meticulously deconstructed, like a prized sculpture preparing for a travelling exhibition. Forty five thousand tons of components are being labelled with individual QR codes<\/a> to facilitate its reconstruction in Cambodia.<\/p>\n China\u2019s shift to a greener economy \u2013 and a deadly pollution scandal \u2013 led to the Hunan plant\u2019s closure; now it is getting a fresh start on foreign shores.<\/p>\n When it lands in Cambodia, the plant will exacerbate the pollution in Ou Treh and the global climate crisis. China has turned a blind eye to the side effects of coal power development as it encourages the renaissance of its coal industry overseas.<\/p>\n From a desert in Pakistan<\/a> to the coast of Kenya<\/a>, Chinese companies and banks have built, financed or supplied equipment to hundreds of coal power\u00a0projects<\/a> across the world over the last two decades.<\/p>\n The export of a used power plant from China is uncommon, according to Yuan Jiahai, a professor at the North China Electricity and Power University. However, the forces driving the Hunan plant to Cambodia are also behind the broader overseas migration of China\u2019s coal industry.<\/p>\n The scientific consensus<\/a> is that coal power needs to be phased out in order to prevent catastrophic climate change. \u201cBuilding new coal plants without carbon capture and storage is incompatible with the energy transition required by the Paris Agreement, especially because each new coal plant built today will last 30 to 50 years,\u201d said<\/a> Kelly Gallagher, director of Tufts University\u2019s Center for International Environment and Resource Policy.<\/p>\n Yet, while most developed countries have restricted<\/a> state support\u00a0for overseas coal projects, China has explicitly encouraged<\/a> its state-owned banks and companies to pursue new markets. That support is not abating: Chinese companies and banks have committed<\/a> to finance one quarter of the coal power capacity under development outside of China.<\/p>\n In\u00a0an interview<\/a>\u00a0at last year\u2019s UN climate conference, Li Junfeng, the former director of China\u2019s National Centre for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, said China\u2019s construction of coal power plants overseas is critical to meeting rising power demand. \u201cWe cannot require a developing country less developed than China to start decreasing coal consumption now. That is not possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But coal-fuelled development is no longer the only path. Renewable energy is rapidly becoming cost-competitive<\/a>, and studies have shown that every year coal power causes hundreds of thousands of premature deaths<\/a> linked to air pollution in India and China.<\/p>\n A key reason China continues to support coal power development overseas is because it is a solution to a domestic economic problem \u2013 one that has plagued Hunan.<\/p>\n Before receiving a one-way ticket to Cambodia, the Hunan Chuangyuan coal plant powered an aluminium smelter in the fertile hills of Changde, a major rice producing region on the banks of the Yuanjiang River. The aluminium factory was built in 2001, when China\u2019s roaring economy had a seemingly bottomless appetite for raw materials \u2013 and coal power.<\/p>\n But in late 2014, a reporter from the Beijing News<\/em><\/a> visited Pantang, a village next to the factory, and uncovered a wasteland where tangerine trees once blossomed. A toxic cocktail of fluoride from the aluminium smelter and coal ash had been illegally dumped in the valley. Tangerines irrigated by the polluted groundwater had shrivelled and developed tumours, foreshadowing an outbreak of cancer that killed at least 10 villagers.<\/p>\n Following the expos\u00e9, the Hunan Environmental Protection Bureau took immediate action, fining<\/a> the company operating the coal and aluminium plant 100,000 yuan (US$14,530) and ordering it to rectify its behaviour. The case also prompted the bureau to launch a broader environmental campaign<\/a> for the whole province. One of its top priorities was to shut down outmoded, law-violating factories.<\/p>\n This idea did not originate in Hunan but was established as a key national policy<\/a> by the State Council in 2013. China had entered a period of slower economic growth which\u00a0the government has dubbed \u201cthe new normal\u201d. Bloated from years of runaway development, aluminium, steel, coal and other heavy industries found themselves with far more capacity<\/a> than the market could absorb. In response, the State Council ordered the provinces to close down unneeded production lines.<\/p>\n Factories that did not meet energy consumption and pollution standards were to be prioritised<\/a> in the culling. This advanced the twin goals of combating the national pollution crisis and restoring the fiscal health of China\u2019s heavy industries.<\/p>\n The Hunan Chuangyuan factory was a natural target for the campaign. Following record low aluminium prices, it shut down<\/a> aluminium and power production in early 2016. At the end of the year, the Hunan government reported<\/a> that the plant had made permanent cuts to its aluminium production capacity in line with the national policy.<\/p>\n This left the factory\u2019s coal power plant stranded.<\/p>\n The plant\u2019s prospects in China were dim. By 2020, inefficient coal plants like the Chuangyuan, which emit higher levels of carbon dioxide and air pollutants, have to undergo costly retrofits or shut down, according to a government energy efficiency policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the government was sending a clear message to industries struggling domestically: look overseas. In a 2013 overcapacity policy<\/a>, the State Council explicitly directed these industries to \u201cgo out\u201d to new markets as a solution. Another directive focused on coal and iron overcapacity called on<\/a> China\u2019s state-owned banks to provide financial support for the industries to go abroad.<\/p>\n As the Chuangyuan factory and scores like it were being shut down across China, a new wave of industrialisation was happening in Cambodia. With it arose a path to a second life for the coal plant marooned in Hunan.<\/p>\n Transaction records from last year show that the two Chuangyuan coal power units were sold<\/a> for 218 million yuan ($21.7 million) by a company specialising in used power plant equipment. The unlikely bidder was Kasen Zhejiang, a Chinese furniture manufacturer that supplies La-Z-Boy and other international brands.<\/p>\n Earlier in 2018, Kasen Zhejiang\u2019s parent company Kasen International formed a joint venture<\/a> with a Cambodian real estate mogul to develop the Steung Hav\u00a0special economic zone<\/a> modelled after Shenzhen along the lush coast of Sihanoukville. Once a sleepy beach town, the city has become the landing point for a flood of Chinese investment; 70% of Cambodia\u2019s foreign direct investment now comes from China.<\/p>\n Driving into Sihanoukville at night, one has the feeling of arriving in a third-tier<\/a> Chinese city trying to recreate Las Vegas \u2013 in Cambodia. Even the roads cannot keep pace with construction. The skeletons of new hotels and casinos stand orphaned in monsoon mud waiting to be connected to the city grid. Undeterred, overloaded trucks weave through mountains of construction waste and groups of revellers.<\/p>\n The development spree was bolstered by Xi Jinping\u2019s state visit to Cambodia in 2016 and the countries\u2019 growing relationship<\/a> under the Belt and Road Initiative. Cambodia had the sixth highest GDP growth rate<\/a> in the world in 2018, and opportunities abound for Chinese investors. Chinese state capital<\/a> has flowed into constructing power lines and highways. Private investors have also arrived<\/a> in droves to make fortunes under the banner of the Belt and Road.<\/p>\n The gold rush is hitting fever pitch, and Kasen Zhejiang is staking its claim. Dubbed<\/a> a Belt and Road project by Cambodia, its special economic zone is planned to attract major industries<\/a>, from iron smelters to its own paper-making business.<\/p>\n But in a country plagued by rolling blackouts<\/a>, the factories will need a stable power source. So building a power plant was Kasen\u2019s first priority<\/a>. The two Hunan-sourced power units will be the first in a 1200-megawatt coal power plant that they expect to have online by 2020<\/a>. Kasen did not respond to requests for comment, but the discounted price of a second-hand coal plant likely made the Hunan Chuangyuan an attractive choice.<\/p>\n Kasen\u2019s publicly listed parent company has pledged to reduce<\/a> the group\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions, but China does not apply its domestic environmental standards to Chinese coal plants shipped or constructed overseas. Meanwhile Cambodia, like many other developing countries, does not block the development of inefficient coal plants.<\/p>\n \u201cLow technology, such as sub-critical technology, is relatively cheaper in terms of capital cost, and, thus, Cambodia may opt for low technology,\u201d states the Cambodian government\u2019s Basic Energy Plan<\/a>, published in 2019. The plan acknowledges that this could lead to acid rain, higher emissions and health impacts for residents living near the plants.<\/p>\n According to China Electric Equipment Group Northwest, the state-owned contractor for the Chuangyuan plant\u2019s transfer and reconstruction, this asymmetry amounts to a win-win. \u201cThe project is a practical measure to implement the national overcapacity policy and it is also a response to the national \u2018Belt and Road\u2019 strategy. The two decommissioned units of the Chuangyuan coal plant will be transformed from trash to treasure,\u201d the company wrote<\/a>\u00a0on its website.<\/p>\n Sihanoukville residents have suffered from Cambodia\u2019s blackouts and high electricity prices<\/a>, but coal power development has still faced opposition.<\/p>\n Before the first two coal plants were built, local campaigners organised a protest march during Sihanoukville\u2019s \u201cSea Festival\u201d. The Cambodian government responded by setting up a forum for company representatives to address complaints in the capital city of Phnom Penh, according to Cheap Sotheary, coordinator for the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC), who was involved in the protest.<\/p>\n The representatives pledged to control pollution and provide healthcare to the surrounding communities \u2013\u00a0promises Cheap said have not been kept. Villagers were largely unaware of the adverse health effects of the plants, which they were told would bring cheaper electricity and jobs, she added.<\/p>\n \u201cWe tried to campaign against the construction, but it was not successful, so the construction continued.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the coal plants were built, electricity access has improved, and electricity rates are lower. But locals are also bearing the hidden costs of coal power.<\/p>\n The coal ash snowing down on Peng Mom\u2019s village has had the most pronounced effect. Not only Peng Mom and Phok Nge\u2019s families, but nearly all the villagers<\/a> in Ou Treh have experienced health issues, mirroring the wave of sickness that coal and other industrial waste brought to the community in Hunan a few years ago.<\/p>\n The ash, which is removed from the coal plants in the process of generating power to reduce air pollution, contains heavy metals and needs to be handled and stored carefully. But in Sihanoukville, it is being trucked to the processing plant next to the village and refined into a product for cement-making, a growing business in the midst of Cambodia\u2019s real estate boom.<\/p>\n The volume of coal ash will likely increase, as the cast-off Hunan Chuangyuan plant is installed in Sihanoukville, and the two existing coal plants complete expansions.<\/p>\n Peng Mom and Phok Nge have been working with their neighbours and village chief to petition higher levels of government to have the coal-ash processing plant shut down and moved away from residential areas.<\/p>\n After gathering thumbprints for a petition, 42 families<\/a> in the community formally filed a complaint in early June. They got the attention of the provincial governor, who inspected the site and threatened to close the plant if it does not clean up its operations in the next few months.<\/p>\n They will continue fighting their battle against the side effects of coal power, but the root issue is not going away. \u201cThe government will not stop the coal power plants. They only have plans to build more,\u201d Cheap said.<\/p>\n Sok Sokhom, director of the Cambodian National Research Organization, said: \u201cThe government would do better to invest in solar power plants \u2013 they are better than coal power plants. We understand that no matter if you have an environmental impact report to prove that there will be no impact, the reality is always different from the report.\u201d<\/p>\n Cambodia does not have large domestic coal resources, so it has to import coal. Meanwhile, it has strong solar potential<\/a> and new solar installations are already cheaper<\/a> than coal in many ASEAN countries.<\/p>\n Cambodia has just built its first solar plants. But with finance for coal power, and now physical coal equipment, pouring into Sihanoukville from China and other countries, coal remains attractive to the government and to businesses willing to overlook local impacts in pursuit of short-term growth and profits.<\/p>\n The state-owned engineering company behind the Chuangyuan project sees its transfer as a model<\/a>. \u201cThis project is innovative. It provides a new path for other financially struggling power plants and enterprises decreasing capacity domestically to follow,\u201d it wrote on its website<\/a>.<\/p>\n Other industries facing overcapacity in China have also started to see the potential to export their old equipment to new markets. Recently, China\u2019s top steelmaker began planning<\/a> to export two shuttered blast furnaces from Xinjiang to Cambodia.<\/p>\n In the coal power industry, such used equipment transfers will likely remain rare. Most of China\u2019s inefficient plants will be retrofitted, according to Professor Yuan Jiahai. However, the heightened environmental standards and changing economic conditions that are sending the Chuangyuan plant overseas will continue to drive a broader migration of China\u2019s coal industry abroad.<\/p>\n By lending state support for new coal projects, China is tipping the scale toward continued coal development rather than renewable energy. In ASEAN countries, the destination of the majority of these projects, no more than 8% of electricity generation<\/a> can come from coal power by 2030 to meet the climate change mitigation targets set by the Paris Agreement. That means the majority of existing coal plants will have to be phased out rapidly; any additional plants will only push that target further out of reach.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/chinadialogue-production.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/content_image\/content_image\/5627\/coal_plant_in_Cambodia_3.jpg\")
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\nA smokestack rises over the hills of Sihanoukville, Cambodia (Image: Lili Pike)<\/span><\/p>\nA global threat<\/h2>\n
![\"Chinese](\"https:\/\/chinadialogue-production.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/content_image\/content_image\/5621\/coal_plant_in_Cambodia_1.jpg\")
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\nChinese flags fly over an industrial lot under development in Sihanoukville (Image: Lili Pike)<\/span><\/p>\nA stranded coal plant<\/h2>\n
\u2018From trash to treasure\u2019<\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/chinadialogue-production.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/content_image\/content_image\/5624\/coal_plant_in_Cambodia_2.jpg\")
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\nA construction site in Sihanoukville (Image: Lili Pike)<\/span><\/p>\nA treasure for Cambodia?<\/h2>\n
![\"Smoke](\"https:\/\/chinadialogue-production.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/content_image\/content_image\/5630\/coal_plant_in_Cambodia_4.jpg\")
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\nSmoke rises from the coal-ash processing plant, six kilometres down the road from the coal plants (Image: Lili Pike) <\/span><\/p>\n![\"Coal](\"https:\/\/chinadialogue-production.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/content_image\/content_image\/5633\/coal_plant_in_Cambodia_5.jpg\")
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\nCoal ash, stored in the blue warehouse (Image: Lili Pike)<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Peng](\"https:\/\/chinadialogue-production.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/content_image\/content_image\/5636\/coal_plant_in_Cambodia_7.jpg\")
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\nPeng Mom, Phok Nge, their children, and other neighbours with the coal ash processing plant behind them (Image: Lili Pike)<\/span><\/p>\nWill the plant\u2019s journey be replicated?<\/h2>\n