We sent our letter to the Chinese banks: “Choose #CleanAir4Adana not Coal!”

Last week, we sent a letter to Chinese banks, calling on them to withdraw their financial support for the Hunutlu coal fired power plant; because we demand financing of clean and sustainable energy instead of additional coal projects.

The letter has been sent to three banks in China - China Development Bank, ICBC and Bank of China - and to Shanghai Electric, the largest shareholder of the power plant, which would be responsible for an estimated additional 2,000 premature deaths in Adana. We addressed the negative impacts of the power plant on human health, biodiversity, agricultural production and climate in the letter.

We have once more underlined that the project does not comply with the regulations in Turkey and international agreements in addition to the controversies that the project poses to China’s green finance policies.

An investment at this scale needs to benefit both China and Turkey, most importantly the local communities who will bear the impacts of the coal plant.

We do not believe that the project that will operate on imported coal will provide any benefit to our communities and our country due to the negative impacts on the environment, climate and biodiversity.

We ask the Chinese banks to withdraw from the project and instead provide financial support for sustainable and renewable energy investments in Turkey.

Together with you, 18.500 people have supported this campaign that we initiated last week. You can help us double this number, by sharing this campaign with others so that Chinese banks choose #CleanAir4Adana instead of coal.