Turkey Plans 80 Coal-Fired Power Plants -- What About Climate Change?

"ISTANBUL -- Driving along the E5 highway, this ancient city's jumble of concrete block high-rises and Ottoman-domed mosques recedes into the distance. The future gleams.

Sleek luxury condominiums and shopping malls tower over modern new suburbs. Orange construction cranes have taken up residence along the side of the roads, feeding the teeming city's seemingly endless building boom.

Fueling Istanbul's growth -- and, as the country's economic center, Turkey's development, as well -- is coal. With the second-highest energy consumption growth after China, Turkey is highly dependent on Russian and Iranian oil and gas. Even as the country works to take advantage of its location between Europe and Asia to become a regional energy corridor, the government is also banking heavily on coal to power the future."

Lisa Friedman reports for ClimateWire October 9, 2015.