Bangladesh is among the countries most affected by air pollution, with the life expectancy in the country reduced by almost 2 years due to the impacts of pollution exposure on health. The high levels of air pollution are currently putting the Bangladeshi population at an elevated risk from the unfolding COVID-19 epidemic.Threatening to worsen this situation is a large number of proposed coal-fired power plants, the sixth largest pipeline in the world, combined with very lax emission standards for such plants. A hotspot for these coal power expansion plans is a massive cluster of coal-fired power plants, with a total of 8 power plants with 16 boilers and a total capacity of 9.8 gigawatts is being proposed in Payra, Bangladesh, making it the second-largest in South Asia and fourth-largest in the world.

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