by Engineer Arshad H. Abbasi CRSS Note: Pakistan plans to install about a dozen coal-fired power plants in the next three years or so. Their cumulative generation would be close to 10,000 Megawatts. This is likely to help overcome acute power shortages that the country currently faces. But it comes with huge environmental concerns. What consequences  will the coal energy  entail for  the already precarious environment? Is the technology being commissioned efficient enough to prevent carbon emissions into the air? Is it the technology that has already resulted in a blanket of smog over major Chinese cities such as Guangzhou, Chengdou, Beijing?  Massive emissions from coal-fired power plants, factories, and tens of millions of vehicles in major Chinese cities  are already touching alarming levels not only in China but in countries like India, Philippines, Vietnam. Concerned energy and environment experts wonder as to whether coal-based power plants - which have already caused huge ecological damage - will ever be efficient enough to preclude further damage to the environment. With these concerns in view, CRSS is pleased to share this incisive paper with readers for a greater understanding of the issue. This paper is a comparative analysis of the old and new technologies, their efficiency and  impact on the ecology. We are thankful to Engineer Arshad Abbasi for allowing us to publish  this paper. And the views expressed and conclusions drawn in the paper are entirely his own. Executive Summary In coal-fired power generation, the global trend is towards improving the efficiency of thermal power plants by generating more electricity while using the minimum quantity of fuel (Natural Gas, Coal and Residual Fuel Oil) as well as lowering emissions. In fact, High Efficiency and Low Emissions is the collective mantra of the 21st century with coal-fired power plants in operation having reached a thermal efficiency of 45%. Higher efficiency translates into less consumption of...

The hidden wealth of some of the world’s most prominent leaders, politicians and celebrities has been revealed by an unprecedented leak of millions of documents that show the myriad ways in which the rich can exploit secretive offshore tax regimes. The Guardian, working with global partners, will set out details from the first tranche of what are being called “the Panama Papers”. Journalists from more than 80 countries have been reviewing 11.5m files leaked from the database of Mossack Fonseca, the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm. The records were obtained from an anonymous source by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists with the Guardian and the BBC. Though there is nothing unlawful about using offshore companies, the files raise fundamental questions about the ethics of such tax havens – and the revelations are likely to provoke urgent calls for reforms of a system that critics say is arcane and open to abuse. The Panama Papers reveal: Twelve national leaders are among 143 politicians, their families and close associates from around the world known to have been using offshore tax havens. A $2bn trail leads all the way to Vladimir Putin. The Russian president’s best friend – a cellist called Sergei Roldugin - is at the centre of a scheme in which money from Russian state banks is hidden offshore. Some of it ends up in a ski resort where in 2013 Putin’s daughter Katerina got married. Among national leaders with offshore wealth are Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s prime minister; Ayad Allawi, ex-interim prime minister and former vice-president of Iraq; Petro Poroshenko, president of Ukraine; Alaa Mubarak, son of Egypt’s former president; and the prime minister of Iceland, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson. In the UK, six members of the House of Lords, three former Conservative MPs and dozens of donors to British political parties have had offshore assets. The families of at least eight current...

US drones and jets killed at least 150 people in Somalia - the highest death toll from a US strike yet recorded anywhere by the Bureau. An American airstrike killed 50 al Qaeda fighters in Yemen - a casualty count not seen there since 2009. Not a single CIA drone strike was reported in Pakistan. Pakistan No CIA drone strikes in Pakistan during a month that saw a Taliban suicide bomber kill more than 60 people in a park in Lahore. Afghanistan There were only five reported US strikes in Afghanistan in March. Based on past experience, this could be a significant underestimate. In February there were 18 US air strikes reported in Afghanistan. This month the US Air Force released its aggregated data for February 2016, which showed that both the total number of strikes and the rate of strikes per day increased from the previous month for the second month running. There were 66 sorties with a weapon release in the 29 days of February, up from 51 in January. The Bureau is collecting data on individual strikes in Afghanistan, summarised above. However not all strikes are reported in open source material. The US Air Force publishes an aggregate summary of strikes in Afghanistan without any casualty information, which we have reproduced below. The figures for March 2016 will be released in the second week of April.   Yemen The US Department of Defense publicly announced it had carried out an air strike in Yemen, the first time it had officially addressed an individual strike there. US aircraft killed 50 al Qaeda fighters, the Pentagon said. This was the highest death toll in a single strike in Yemen since US cruise missiles killed 55 civilians in December 2009. At least two more US drone strikes hit Yemen killing eight or nine alleged al Qaeda fighters. Six more drone or air strikes were reported in the month but the Bureau has yet to find conclusive evidence the US was responsible. Somalia US drones and jets killed 150 to 200 people in an attack on an al Shabaab...