Air quality, health and toxics impacts of the proposed coal power cluster in Payra, Bangladesh
Bangladesh is among the countries most affected by air pollution, with the life expectancy in the country reduced by almost 2 years due to the impacts of pollution exposure on health. The high levels of air pollution are currently putting the Bangladeshi population at an elevated risk from the unfolding COVID-19 epidemic.Threatening to worsen this situation is a large number of proposed coal-fired power plants, the sixth largest pipeline in the world, combined with very lax emission standards for such plants. A hotspot for these coal power expansion plans is a massive cluster of coal-fired power plants, with a total of 8 power plants with 16 boilers and a total capacity of 9.8 gigawatts is being proposed in Payra, Bangladesh, making it the second-largest in South Asia and fourth-largest in the world.
