The UK government has outlined how it plans to reconcile the need for energy against the carbon emissions of coal-fired power stations - and promptly come under fire from opposition parties and environmentalists.
Government faces an unenviable tightrope walk when it comes to tackling the controversial issue of 'clean' coal but this week unveiled its plans along with a study carried out by consultants AEA Group on the future value of coal carbon abatement technology to UK industry.
The independent report concludes that clean coal technology could bring between £2-4 billion a year into the UK economy by 2030, and support between 30,000-60,000 jobs.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband also tried to go beyond the 'Carbon Capture and Storage ready' policy that has been repeatedly attacked by environmentalists, saying that permission would not be granted to build new coal power stations unless they included demonstration-scale CCS projects from the outset and could be easily retrofitted once CCS became viable on a large scale.
A lack of demonstration projects has been one of the hurdles in Europe's efforts to establish itself as a global leader in the development of CCS.
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said: "The conditions we're proposing for new coal are the most environmentally ambitious of any country in the world, requiring the demonstration of CCS on a substantial proportion of any new power station and the 100% retrofit of CCS when it's proven.
"At the same time, by providing funding for demonstrations, we can maintain coal as part of our energy mix, supporting diversity and therefore security of supply.
"By acting early, jobs will also be created as Britain develops the expertise in what could be a major new industry, with CCS projects offering the potential to form the hubs for clusters of low carbon industries.
"By driving the development of CCS in this country, we are also, as a country, playing an essential role in the battle against climate change."
The Conservative's Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Greg Clark said: "the Government has missed a golden opportunity to set an Emissions Performance Standard that would set a legal limit on the release of greenhouse gases from new power stations.
"This announcement should have closed the door on unabated coal, but the Government has left the door ajar."
Greenpeace said the government needed to go further.
"The fact that there is even a consultation on coal is welcome, given that this time last year policy was being decided by myopic ministers in thrall to regressive civil servants, but Ed Miliband needs to go further," said executive director John Sauven.
"His proposed policy leaves us with the threat of a massive new coal plant at Kingsnorth that would only capture and bury a quarter of its emissions and pump out six million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year, making it the dirtiest new power station built in Britain for decades."
"Britain could and should be a global leader on climate change and Ed Miliband has the power to make that happen, but first he has to rule out emissions from new coal-fired power stations, like Kingsnorth, and set a deadline for closing the existing coal plants like Drax."
Government comes under fire on clean coal
National Parks could lead the way following latest climate change projections
The Welsh Association of National Park Authorities has today called upon National and Local Government to recognise the importance of Wales’ National Parks as climate change figures released by the UK Climate Impact Programme indicate a dramatically worsening climate.
Figures released today by the UK Climate Impact Programme foresee that the wellbeing of people living in Britain will be significantly affected unless more is done to mitigate and adapt to the increasingly likely effects of climate change. The strongest impacts will be on National Parks across the country as lower rainfalls in summer and higher in winter are predicted, with much higher average seasonal temperatures by the 2080s. Wales’ low economic base, small population and high reliance on rural livelihoods are now threatened assets in a changing climate and this is no more so than in the National Parks.
National Parks have joined forces across Britain to look at ways to respond to climate change and are prepared to play an increasingly important role that compliments their existing designation as nationally important protected areas - but they need other organisations and decision makers to recognise the vital role that they can and must play.
The Chairman of the Welsh Association of National Park Authorities, Cllr. Simon Hancock, commented:
“The news from the UK Climate Impact Programme is unfortunate, but it lends even more weight to ensuring there are protected areas such as National Parks, which are now more important and more fragile than ever, vital barometers for the changes now upon us.
“The sheer diversity within all three National Parks in Wales, plus the planning, natural resource management and education expertise within National Park Authorities puts us in an ideal position to test out measures to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
“National Park Authorities throughout Britain are already working on projects addressing climate change and promoting sustainable development. We share that knowledge and expertise with each other and with the wider family of protected areas – only last week all our ecologists and biodiversity specialists met together in the Norfolk Broads to consider the best responses to climate change.
“We look forward to working with Local Government to share our experiences and look to national Government to continue to provide the leadership and vital investment that’s required to ensure our National Parks fulfil the active role they should be given from now on.”
Paul Sinnadurai, Senior Ecologist and Policy Advisor for the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority who recently attended the Ecologists’ workshop in the Norfolk Broads had this to say: “Welsh National Parks feature some of the most stunningly beautiful landscapes across Britain but also contain Wales’ highest, lowest, warmest, coldest, wettest and driest places. This means that our National Parks are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change and so too are the people who live and work in them.
“Wales’ National Parks were the first in Britain to raise awareness of the importance of climate change to all the National Parks and the vital role that they can and must play in leading rural responses to it. In essence we should see our National Parks as living laboratories, testing out the impacts of different kinds of green technology and natural resource management- and that’s exactly what we’re seeing with community-led projects like the Green Valleys initiative which is currently in the running for NESTA’s £1 million Big Green Challenge.
“Projects like these have the potential to redefine how people value their landscape and its natural resources, are possibly the best and only way that countries as a whole will be able to respond effectively, working together intelligently, from the bottom up rather than the top down. If the Government wants to try and make a difference to the future described in today’s report they will need to invest in using National Parks like this.”
