Dr Ling Wen (R), Executive Director and President of China Shenhua Energy, responds to a Greenpeace activist holding up an image of creeping desertification next to a China Shenhua Energy 'Coal-to-Liquid' (CTL) plant in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, at the company's interim results conference.
The CTL process is a controversial method of converting coal to various forms of oils and plastics, and is highly water intensive.
Greenpeace accuses the company of depleting the water table, poisoning wells and hastening desertification in and around Ordos. Thousands of traditional farmers in and around the Inner Mongolian village of Haolebaoji, where the CTL plant is exactly located, have lost their livelihoods, as their crops have dried up and their livestock have died - all due to lack of water. Greenpeace is calling for an immediate suspension of the project.