Yesterday (Feb 24), Parliament voted on the new Energy Bill; there was an amendment to include an Emissions Performance Standard to limit the amount of CO₂ emissions from any new coal power stations.

Just a day before the Bill, Joan Ruddock wrote to all Labour telling them not to support the amendment.  You can download the letter from the 38 Degrees website here: http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2010/02/24/leaked-government-response-to-our-climate-campaign/

There’s also a point by point response available to download.

The amendment was defeated 252 votes to 244.   This means that new coal power stations can now be built without limits on their emission.  However, there is still a chance that the amendment could be included by the House of Lords.

• Yvette Cooper, MP for Pontefract and Castleford, constituency MP for the location of a possible new coal power station at Ferrybridge, voted against the amendment.
• Ed Miliband, Climate Change secretary votes against it
• Jon Trickett, MP for Hemsworth voted against it
• Ed Balls, MP for Normanton voted against it
• Rosie Winteron, Doncaster MP and Minister of State for Yorkshire and the Humber voted against it

For a full list of how MPs voted, check the 38 Degrees web site

http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2010/02/25/energy-bill-how-did-your-mp-vote/

Keep up with events from Copenhagen with the

Climate Action Network blog: blogs.climatenetwork.org/

And for those countries doing the most to obstruct progress in the global climate talks, they the get Fossil of the Day award: www.fossiloftheday.com/

News was circulating on media web pages last night of a significant climb down from Eon, the electricity utility company who announced that plans to build the controversial Kingsnorth coal power station will not be going ahead and will be shelved for at least three years.

Kingsnorth would have been the first new coal power station to be built in the UK for 30 years and has been the focus of the environmental movement challenging the government about its intentions of a coal rennaisance – the dirtiest of all the fossil fuels.

Some of the Key stages in the battle of Kingsnorth include:

• Greenpeace occupied the power plant and a subsequent jury found the chimney team not guilty of criminal damage of a slogan painted down the chimney – the amount of damage from paint was far less than the damage caused by climate change from burning coal.
• In 2008 Climate Camp occupied a site nearby in protest – the event was national news after hostile police tactics were used against peaceful demonstrators.
• Recently, Ed Miliband announced that there will be no unabated coal power stations to be built in the UK – any new coal power station must now have some form of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and full capture by the 2020s. CCS has been announced as the holy grail of the coal industry.  Unfortunately the technology does not exist on a commercial scale anywhere in the world – this was a significant change in government policy won by environmental campaigners.

As we’ve been saying all along, we don’t need new coal power stations and CCS is a smokescreen.  What we need is a clean energy future based upon renewable technologies such as wind solar and marine.  We need to abandon the current centralised system of energy production and move towards a decentralised energy system – whereby energy is generated close to the point of use, and we also need to be looking at energy conservation.  All these elements will reduce our emissions of CO2, create thousands of jobs and help us to become international leaders in meeting our energy demands and tackling climate change.

If Eon can announce they will shelve plans for Kingsnorth – will SSE announce they will no longer consider building a new coal plant at Ferrybridge?

17 – 18 October 2009, Ratcliffe-on-Soar

Don’t be confused – 2009 is just another year of climate talks, in which governments and corporations will continue business as usual and tell us how a load of corrupt (but profitable) trading is in fact a real attempt to save the world.

To solve climate change we’re going to have to get together and make a real noise. CO2 levels are rising 20,000 times faster than at any point in life’s astonishing billion year history and coal is the biggest source of emissions. If we burn all the coal in the ground we’re toast. No butter, no jam, just toast. So stopping the burning of coal in the rapidly warming world is a good place to start.

That’s why on the 17th & 18th October 2009 we’re having a mega get together to close one of the UK’s biggest coal fired power stations, E.ON’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottingham.

Another end of the world is possible.

For more details visit the Great Climate Swoop web site: http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/actions/climate-swoop-2009

Diary dates for the run up to the Swoop:

Friday 2nd October, 3 – 5pm, Peanut Gallery, Leeds University Union. Nonviolent Direct Action Training. An introduction to direct action. Share thoughts, techniques, and worries. For all levels of experience.

Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th October 10 – 5pm, the Commonplace. Climate Camp National Gathering. Help plan for the action.

The 18 day sit-in at the Vesta’s wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight comes to a temporary close.

We recognise that as we face both an economic crisis and a climate crisis we need a transition to a green, sustainable economy – creating jobs and the technology of the future. There is a huge opportunity in providing jobs and security as we fight against climate change, this case shows the government stepping backwards.

As we fight against old, unsustainable power sources we urge the government and Vestas to protect jobs and the UK’s only wind turbine factory. We wish you luck and stand in solidarity with your struggle.

Yesterday, the Plans Panel (east) of Leeds City Council rejected the application from Banks Developments to rip 875,000 tonnes of coal out of the ground from an open cast coal mine directly opposite the Fairburn Ings nature Reserve, near Castleford.

Chris Mackins, spokesperson for Yorkshire Against New Coal who urged the panel to reject the application on climate change grounds confirmed that “this is a victory for common sense and for climate protection” as now more than 2.57 million tonnes of CO₂ will be prevented from being released into the atmosphere.  This would also have caused more than £133 million in associated climate change damage.

The officer’s report was weighted heavily in favour of the applicant. Comments from the panel included the need to consider public opinion, which directly contrasted the officer’s report which advised the committee that public opinion was not enough to reject the application.  There were more than 1600 individual objections of which YANC had contributed a submission of 1100 objections based on climate change.

Another councillor acknowledged the need to consider the carbon footprint of Leeds City Council and referred to the complete lack of references made in the officer’s report regarding climate change.  Subsequent to the release of the officer’s report, YANC confirmed to the planning officer and to the members of planning committee that planning guidance should ensure that climate change is considered in planning decisions.

The Plans Panel was reminded that Leeds City Council Executive recently passed a new strategy called ‘Vision for Action’ to address the causes and impacts of climate change.

The officer’s report was also laced with distractions and assumptions about where the coal may go and made references about technology which does not exist and even suggested that this was a sustainable project!

Climate change must become an integral element of the planning process, and there is national guidance which confirms this.  Planning officers have a responsibilty to guide planning committee members and ensure that there is vision and support responsible action; unfortunately this was not the case yesterday, but the planning committee made the right decision.

The Plans Panel (east) will this week decide whether to approve or to reject the application by Banks Developments, for an open cast coal mine alongside Fairburn Ings nature reserve.  The planning process has received more than 1600 individual objections letters, alongside additional objections from five Parish Councils, MPs and Councillors, as well as opposition from the local opposition group RAGE.

YANC, who have been instrumental in public engagement have also submitted opposition based on climate change grounds and have provided the Planning Officer and the members of the planning committee with planning regulation guidance, to confirm this application can be overturned on climate change grounds.

The single greatest threat to the climate comes from burning coal. Indeed coal fired generation is historically responsible for most of the fossil fuel CO₂ in the air today and about half of all fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions globally. Coal fired power generation is the most environmentally damaging form of power generation yet devised.

In April this year the Executive of Leeds City Council approved the new “Climate Change Strategy: Vision for Action” which, in accordance with the signing of the Nottingham Declaration, commits the Council to address the causes and impacts of climate change.

Leeds City Council now have the opportunity to show that they are strong on climate change. Planning is integral to addressing climate change – however, the planning committee have been advised to approve the application.

Leeds City Council must reject this planning application.

YANC will be outside Leeds Civic Hall on Thursday June 4th.  Join us from 11:30 to show your opposition > bring your placards and banners for a peaceful demonstration to show that Leeds City Council has a responsibility to address climate change.

Today, Scottish and Southern Energy have again reconfirmed that they are considering building a new coal power station at Ferrybridge.

Scientists are saying we have only a few years left to curb emissions, if we are to avoid pushing the temperature above 2^o and facing catastrophic climate change.

When the Industrial Revolution started some 200 years ago, it wasn’t known that the impacts of burning coal would have disastrous consequences for the planet’s climate system. The same cannot be said today. We know all too well that we are facing climate catastrophe if we continue to emit CO₂ into the atmosphere. Scottish and Southern Energy web site says that their core business is to “provide the energy people need in a reliable and sustainable way”. Burning coal does not meet either of these two objectives.

Scientific opinion confirms that we have little time to avoid reaching a climate tipping point. Einstein once said that the definition of madness was “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. Burning coal whilst attempting to address climate change must surely constitute Einstein’s definition of madness. It is now recognised that to address climate change, we must address emissions from the burning of coal.

If Scottish and Southern Energy are to be regarded as a responsible energy provider they must not build any new coal power stations; the company owns and operates half of the county’s renewable energy generation capacity, giving them the expertise to pave the way to a decarbonised economy.

We have asked Lord Kelvin, Chairman of Scottish and Southern Energy to abandon a new coal power station at Ferrybridge and and instead pursue an aggressive pathway of developing clean renewable energy technology.

Building new coal power stations that will wreck our children’s future is not acceptable.

Press Release for Immediate Us

The letter and DVD sent out to all of Leeds East Planning Committee

Leeds East Planning Committee sent documentary film showing public concern related to coal and climate change.

Members of the planning committee of Leeds City Council have been sent a documentary video created by Yorkshire Against New Coal (YANC).

The documentary provides commentary from individual members of the public which outlines their concerns about the use of coal in a time when we need to be reducing our climate impacts.  Coal is the most intense carbon intense of all the fossil fuels.

Currently, there is an application to develop an open cast mine at Ledston.

Chris Mackins from YANC said  “because council planners refrain from engaging within the political process, in order to remain objective about planning proposals, it means that they do not always have direct access to public opinion”

“Climate change is a real concern and burning coal, the most carbon intense of all the fossil fuels needs to be avoided.  We’ve sent the panel a short documentary which gives them a perspective of people’s feelings about what is wrong with coal and why the open cast mine at Ledston should not be approved.”

The planning committee are yet to make a decision whether to approve or reject the application.

Ends