The World Resources Institute (WRI) has identified 1200 coal fired power generation plants that are currently at the planning stage around the globe.

Three quarters of the new plants that may go live in the near future are located in China and India, with 59 countries in total involved in coal power development.

World Resources Institute identifies 1,200 coal plants in planning across 59 countries, with about three-quarters in China and India.

The Guardian reports that total capacity of the new plants, if they are all completed, adds up to 1400 GW, with India planning 455 new plants compared to 363 in China, which is seeing a slowdown in its coal investments after a vast building programme in the past decade.

The WRI report also found that, after a slight dip during the economic troubles of 2008, the global coal trade has rebounded and rose by 13 per cent in 2010.

New plants have largely been financed by both commercial banks and development banks. JP Morgan Chase has provided more than $16.5bn (£10.3bn) for new coal plants over the past six years, followed by Citi ($13.8bn). Barclays ($11.5bn) comes in as the fifth biggest coal backer and the Royal Bank of Scotland ($10.9bn) as the seventh.

 The Japan Bank for International Co-operation was the biggest development bank ($8.1bn), with the World Bank ($5.3bn) second.

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