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Press Release
‘Just Say No’ – Say No to…
‘Factories of Death’
2.30-4.00pm, Bank Holiday Monday, 4th May
St Andrew’s Church Hall
Cambois, near Blyth
North campaigners savage plans for new power stations
Just suppose that Ed Miliband, the Climate Change minister, had last week announced the go-ahead for four new coal-fired power stations, only one of which would have full Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) to remove carbon dioxide from the emissions, and the others to remain entirely ‘unabated’ until 2025, or even later. An almighty storm of protest would have broken about his head for abandoning the fight against climate change – and rightly so! Unabated stations are indeed “Factories Death”, as Professor James Hansen, NASA’s chief climate scientist, describes them, on account of the vast quantities of CO2 they produce.
Yet for all practical purposes, Mr Miliband’s plans differ little from the above. Up to four new stations will probably get the green light, each with a ‘demonstration’ CCS unit capable of capturing only a small fraction (probably 20-25% at most) of the station’s emissions.
Furthermore, these new stations will start belching out their carbon – tens of millions of tons of it every year – at the very time (around 2015) when global emissions need to begin to decline, according to the Committee on Climate Change! And this pollution will continue until the technology is shown to work. This is surely a classic example of the “ineffective governance” lambasted by the 2,500 scientists who met in Copenhagen in March.
Dr Myles Allen at Oxford University pointed out only this week, in a scientific paper in the top journal, Nature, that high rates of fossil fuel use in the 2010s will make the reductions required subsequently exceedingly difficult to achieve (well-nigh impossible, we would say). The reality is that, “The longer we prevaricate, the more difficult the task becomes”, as Lord Robert May, then President of the Royal Society, stated in 2005.
And what happens if CCS proves to be unworkable, or (more likely) uneconomic? Will the new stations be closed down – the prospect simply beggars belief, given the billions which will be invested in them and the hole in the energy budget which would be created as a result. Furthermore, we recall the long and shameful history of broken promises regarding the expansion of Heathrow.
Of course we welcome the Government’s new commitment to CCS! Unhappily, it shows no such commitment to the urgent, vigorous and concerted action required to reduce emissions and lead the world in heading off the nightmare of runaway climate change.
So continues, as Churchill once put it, "The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, and of delays”.
North East campaigners will ‘fight, fight and fight again’ to reverse this decision and any other such follies which follow it. The only alternative is to accept, as Professor Ross Garnault, the Australian government’s advisor on climate change, has warned, “Consequences that would haunt humanity until the end of time.”
Available for interview:
Dr David Golding CBE (Office, 0191 222 5282; Home, 0191 252 6165; Mob, 07 817 637 746)
Development Coordinator, Make Poverty History North East
Chair, PANiC Stations (People Against New Coal-fired power Stations)
Visiting Fellow, School of Marine Science & Technology, Newcastle University
Mr Malcolm Reid (01 434 682 678)
Coordinator, PANiC Stations (People Against New Coal-fired power Stations)
Notes for Editors:
“So what would you do?”
We would warmly welcome, say, two demonstration plants with CCS for their entire output of CO2 from the start. This would probably mean they would be limited to an output of 300-400 MW each. One should have CCS of the ‘pre-combustion’ variety, and the other might be ‘post-combustion’ and applied to a gas-fired, combined heat and power unit. Ideally, a third CCS pilot unit should be retro-fitted on an existing coal-fired power station. If the technology can be made to work, at an acceptable cost, it could then be scaled up to full commercial size.
In this way, we would not lock ourselves into a high carbon future, since, if CCS could not be made to work, little damage would be done even if the units involved continued generating.
“And how would you keep the lights on?”
According to the Government’s own figures, closure of existing coal-fired power stations due to new European environmental standards will reduce the contribution of coal by about 10% of current national generating capacity. However, during that time, the UK is committed to increasing its level of generation from renewables from 5% to about 35% of national capacity – more than covering the shortfall.
“And what do the supporters of the regional world poverty campaign make of this great interest in power stations?”
Some of our supporters have found difficulty with the attention we have been giving to climate change. But what are we to do, given that unless radical and urgent action is taken, we can “Forget about making poverty history; climate change will make poverty permanent” (Nazmul Chowdbury)? How else are we to respond, when we encounter the anguish of Veena Khaleque, Director for Practical Action in Bangladesh, “I find it almost impossible to imagine how the poor of Bangladesh will cope”, given that tens of millions of them could be displaced by rising sea levels?
However, be assured that we in MPH-NE do not forget the hundreds of millions who suffer right now from ‘stupid poverty’ (Bono) inflicted upon them by gross economic injustice. We do not forget them and we will continue to speak up for them!
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Photographs
There will be photographs available from the event after the 4th of May. They will be available from this site in various formats.
Below are some of the pictures from previous events.
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