China's largest investment in Turkey — a key component of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) — is a coal-based power plant located in Adana in South Central Turkey called the Emba Hunutlu power station. While the Turkish government supports the project and sees it as a compliment to its regional integration efforts, one sector is adamantly voicing its opposition: the environmental community, which is accusing Chinese authorities of using double-speak when making environmental commitments. On September 22, 2020, addressing the UN in a video message, China President Xi Jinping announced that China would achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 to combat climate change. Yet, at present, Beijing finances fossil fuel projects in at least 27 countries around the world. Most of these projects are integrated into China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The Emba Hunutlu power station is part of China's Belt and Road Initiative in Turkey, an economic and political cooperation program Ankara joined in November 2015. In April 2019, the countries signed a special BRI deal, and construction on the Hunutlu plant began in September 2019. The project represents China’s largest direct investment in Turkey. Once it is completed in 2022, it will have a capacity to produce 1.32 GW of electricity — about three percent of all electricity currently produced in the country. The plant will be fueled using local coal from Adana as well as imported coal. When China announced its decision to build a coal plant in Adana, numerous environmental groups signed a petition encouraging all Chinese banks financing the construction to withdraw. The project also fits into Turkey’s own global Silk Road project, called the Middle Corridor Initiative (MCI), thus, integrating China and Turkey’s ambitions of creating international hubs to boost global trade. When China announced its decision to build a coal-fired power plant in Adana, Turkish environmental groups were largely alone in opposing the project. They signed a petition letter encouraging all Chinese banks financing the construction, namely the China Development Bank, the Bank of China Ltd., and the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. to halt their funding due to environmental and health concerns. “In light of community opposition to the project, as well as the lack of legal compliance, we respectfully ask that the financiers of the Emba Hunutlu coal plant withdraw all financial support from the project. We believe that the cumulative biodiversity, environmental, air pollution, climate, and policy alignment issues raise serious red flags about your institution’s involvement in this project,” the group said in the letter. A recent report by the World Wildlife Foundation in Turkey (WWF-Turkey) and the Sustainable Economy and Finance Research Association (SEFiA) reveals the costs of this power plant on the environment and health of the local populations. Once in operation, the Hunutlu power plant “will run on 2.8 million tons of important coal per year and will emit more than 200 million tons of CO2 during its project lifespan,” wrote the Rainforest Action Network, in its “Baking on Climate Chaos: Fossil Fuel Finance Report 2021.” Those near the construction zone on Iskenderun Bay already suffer from air pollution due to other industrial facilities such as a gas power plant, two coal power plants, and a steel factory. According to the Rainforest Action Network, some 2 million inhabitants and the area’s biodiversity will be affected by the pollution caused by the new plant. In June 2020, a report released by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air estimated that the plant will contribute to 2,000 premature deaths over its 40-year lifetime. There are also increased cancer risks associated with the plant. In a lawsuit challenging the license agreement of the Sugözü Kömürlü Thermal Power Plant, which became operational in 2003, volunteer for the Eastern Mediterranean Environment Platform and lawyer İsmail Hakkı Atal said that cancer cases increased by 11 times and cancer types by 275 percent in the area between 2009–2014. Besides the direct impact on the environment and public health, activists also question the economic model and viability of this giant project. The new WWF-Turkey and SEFiA report indicates that the Hunutlu power plant won't pay off the capital cost — at least not in the next 30 years.