This #GivingTuesday, will you help us combat ocean plastic pollution? The holiday season is just around the corner, and I want to invite you to kick it off with us on #GivingTuesday, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. #GivingTuesday is a global day of giving and a great opportunity to support a cause close to your heart … Read more
Southeast Asia, and especially Vietnam, is becoming the world’s new dumping ground. Following China’s recent import ban on recyclables, the influx of shipments of international plastic waste has been outpacing the construction of recycling facilities, piling up in Vietnam’s ports and triggering a temporary ban on plastic imports this past summer. Will Vietnam hold strong … Read more
Zhao Zhong can determine any type of plastic simply by touching it. This extraordinary skill earned him the nickname “plastic whisperer” when he was sorting through plastic and other household trash in Ha Long City, Vietnam, last month to help us curb the tsunami of plastic trash choking our oceans. Zhao Zhong, a veteran of … Read more
Plastic trash is choking our oceans. Meet Dr. Xuan Thi Quach, who is cleaning up one of the world’s top ocean plastic polluters: Vietnam. Vietnam has a rapidly growing economy and plastic has become the material of choice. “The plastic industry in Vietnam is booming,” Xuan told me on a recent visit. “Plastic things have replaced … Read more
Today, the Sierra Club, 350.org, Carbon Market Watch, Pacific Environment, and Friends of the Earth U.S. released a report detailing the catastrophic human rights, labor, and environmental violations at Reliance Power’s Sasan coal-fired power plant and mine in Singrauli, India. Even more striking is the fact that the U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) has financed over $900 million for the project, using American taxpayer dollars to support the dirty, dangerous coal project.
A leading U.S. Government finance agency, the Export-Import Bank, yesterday voted to deny financing for the polluting and inefficient Thai Binh II coal power plant in Vietnam based on environmental concerns. The decision reinforced President Obama’s recently released Climate Action Plan, which included a commitment to end US funding of coal plants abroad except for rare exceptions and coincides with yesterday’s World Bank decision to also end virtually all coal plant financing.
Pacific Environment is applauding today’s decision of an obscure but rich federal bank called Export-Import Bank to implement one of the strongest elements of President Obama’s recently released Climate Action Plan—a commitment to end U.S. funding of fossil fuel plants abroad except for rare exceptions. Today, the Export-Import Bank’s Board of Directors voted to deny financing for the highly polluting and inefficient Thai Binh II coal power plant in Viet Nam.