More coal-fired power plants approved despite slowing growth in demand

155 new coal-fired power plants received a permit in China during the first nine months of 2015, diverting investments away from renewables and building up capacity at a time when coal use is flattening as the economy slows, The New York Times reported, citing a new report from Greenpeace East Asia. “China already has more coal capacity than it will ever need,” Zhang Boting, vice chairman of the China Society for Hydropower Engineering, said in an interview. “A few years down the road, we’ll see what a waste the plants are. We have seen this happen to the steel and cement industries.”