Greenpeace UK - Kingsnorth

Coal: going, going, gone?

jossc — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:37:17 +0000

It's been a long, difficult and wild ride at times, but an end to climate damaging carbon emissions from new coal power stations could be in sight at last. Finally, some politicians seem to have recognised that we can't cut our CO2 emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 AND keep pumping the stuff out of our power plants - hooray!

Last December the government announced a new energy bill that explicitly recognises this reality. So far so good - but (as you'll be shocked to discover) there's a problem. As yet the bill has no teeth - whilst it says that new power stations must be able to capture some of their emissions from the get go, it contains no guarantee that by 2025 all carbon emissions from coal must be captured, and that's the bit that really counts.

That's just not good enough - we need the bill to include an emissions performance standard on power stations to ensure we are not locked into a future of high carbon emissions from coal. If not, the three years of hard work it's taken to get to this stage could go to waste.

Act now: Ask your MP to back a strong emission performance standard for all power stations

Back in 2006, when the government first announced plans for a new generation of coal-fired power plants, there was no mention (or seeming awareness) of the long-term danger to the climate from continuing to pump out CO2 into the atmosphere. They simply wanted the new plants because coal had become relatively cheap again in comparison to gas. Unbelievably John Hutton, the minister in charge of this policy, showed no interest in the fact that coal is the most climate damaging of all fuels that we could use to power our economy; his attitude was "so what if we miss our carbon reduction targets - so long as the fuel is cheap".

In January 2007 Hutton, began to consider a request from German utility E.on to build the first new coal plant for 30 years at Kingsnorth in Kent. This first station would be followed by up to nine similar plants around the UK. When it became clear that the minister had every intention of waving all this climate crime through en masse, Greenpeace took action - shutting down the existing Kingsnorth plant to reduce its CO2 output. More than 30 activists were arrested.

We kept up the pressure the following January when, using email traffic obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, we exposed collusion between E.ON and Hutton's department BERR, over potential conditions for a Kingsnorth approval. The next month we blockaded the annual coal industry conference at Lord’s Cricket grounds, which was due to be addressed by Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks. And former Beatle Paul McCartney offered his support to our protesters as he walked past the stadium.

By mid-2008 the message was starting to get through - you can't sign up to drastically reduce damaging carbon emissions and build a new tranche of unabated coal power plants at the same time. The Royal Society, the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives all went on record insisting that no new coal plants should be built without capturing at least 90 per cent of the carbon emissions.

Thick and fast they came: in August 2008 Sir David King, the government’s former chief science adviser, said it was dangerous to assume we could keep using coal until carbon capture technology was proven; Climate Campers targeted Kingsnorth for ten days; six Greenpeace activists who shut down Kingsnorth were acquitted by a jury after hearing evidence from leading climate scientists including NASA's James Hansen; John Hutton lost his job to be replaced by a new decision maker on Kingsnorth - Secretary of State for Climate and Energy Ed Miliband.

In October the Stop Climate Chaos coalition (including the Women's Institute, RSPB, Oxfam and Tearfund) joined the Rainbow Warrior to deliver a pledge against Kingsnorth on behalf of its four million members. By December the game was practically up - Lord Turner and the Committee on Climate Change, commissioned by the prime minister to advise the government on how to meet its legal commitments under the Climate Act, told Mr Brown that by 2020 no coal plant should be allowed to operate without full carbon capture (CCS) capabilities.

And in April 2009 Ed Miliband announced a review of coal policy which ruled out new unabated coal stations and examined CCS options. In July many of you joined with us and other Big If supporters to symbolically surround Kingsnorth at the Miliband event. Shortly afterwards Ed published his proposals and, at face value they looked pretty good - any new coal plant must capture at least a portion of its CO2 from the outset, and should be capturing all its carbon emissions by 2025.

But there's a catch - although the policy looks strong on paper, it is not clear how the government can enforce the 2025 deadline on power companies, and it's hard to believe they would be willing to close down power stations that do not have full CCS once they are up and running.

What is needed is an emissions performance standard, which will limit emissions from all new coal plants from day one, and then reduce over time until emissions from coal plants are totally phased out by the early 2020s. Thanks to Arnie, this method has been working in California for some years now, and we need it here. That why we are supporting an amendment to the energy bill, which would bring in an emissions performance standard strong enough to guarantee that emissions from UK coal plants will not jeopardise our climate targets, or our future.

Take Action

Ask your MP to sign Alan Simpson’s amendment to the energy bill (New Clause 5) to include an emissions performance standard for all power stations »

Case for coal crumbles as Kingsnorth is shelved

christian — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 08:36:44 +0000

How do you measure success? Many times, it’s difficult to point to one specific moment when a campaign delivers a big moment that demonstrates, beyond any doubt, that you've succeeded.

Well, our thanks go to E.ON for providing that moment for our coal campaign late last night – just as we were leaving the office, in fact. On my way to the pub, I met a press officer running back towards the front door – "E.ON have shelved Kingsnorth – just got to go and check if it's real, see you in a few…"

He never made it to the pub, because as the evening unfolded it became clear that E.ON were, indeed, after a three year public campaign, kicking their plans for the massively controversial coal plant into the long grass – which would have been the first to be built in Britain since Drax was completed more than 20 years ago.

When we checked with E.ON's European office, they emailed us to say:

"We can confirm that we expect to defer an investment decision on the Kingsnorth proposals for up to two to three years.

"This is based on the global recession, which has pushed back the need for new plant in the UK to around 2016 because of the reduction in demand for electricity."

So what does this mean? Well, there are a couple of key questions. The first one is: does a delay of two to three years mean that the Kingsnorth project is now effectively shelved? According to E.ON:

"We are not going to make a decision on whether to open it for two to three years and it would then take around four years to build."

So potentially we're looking at 2016 before any new plant would be completed, and that's a long way away. Reasons to be sceptical that E.ON will actually build the plant revolve around the rapidly changing dynamics of the energy sector, and an assessment of how difficult they've found it to build a new plant to date.

"The case for new coal is crumbling, with even E.ON now accepting it's not currently economic to build new plants." John Sauven, Director, Greenpeace UKAnd that gets into the second question: why the turnaround? E.ON are sticking to their party line that this is a consequence of the global recession, and that's certainly had its part to play. But it's worth remembering that two years ago today, when our activists closed down Kingsnorth power station, the company was indicating that they wanted to start construction work within weeks.

That was well before any economic downturn, and there's been constant pressure from a wide coalition of environmental and development campaigners, including all of us who've given support to The Big If and Give Coal the Boot campaigns. Obviously that pressure has had its effect.

So this is a massive breakthrough in the campaign against coal. As our executive director John Sauven has been telling the media this morning:

"This development is extremely good news for the climate and in a stroke significantly reduces the chances of an unabated Kingsnorth plant ever being built. The case for new coal is crumbling, with even E.ON now accepting it's not currently economic to build new plants. The huge diverse coalition of people who have campaigned against Kingsnorth because of the threat it posed to the climate should take heart that emissions from new coal are now even less likely in Britain."

The world's leading climate scientist, Professor Jim Hansen of Nasa, also welcomed the decision as a step in the right direction, but warned that real political leadership is needed to urgently reduce the use of coal - the single most harmful fossil fuel:

"The requirement is to phase out coal emissions, if we want to be fair to our children and grandchildren. We desperately need a nation to exert some leadership, adopting policies to move promptly in that direction. I still look on UK as being perhaps the best hope for leading a fundamental change.

"But as yet there seems to be no government, the US included, with the guts to say what is needed and move in that direction. Instead we hear goals for emissions reduction – what a fake – the coal must be left in the ground or we can never achieve the needed goals for atmospheric carbon dioxide."

A big week for the Big If

leila — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:40:15 +0000

Ed Miliband at the anti-coal vigil outside DECC © Joseph Cabon /Christian Aid

Since the close of the coal consultation last week, many Greenpeace supporters who've signed up to the Big If have been getting busy. Firstly, in Doncaster on Saturday, members of our Yorkshire network showed up to Ed Miliband's constituency surgery in Bentley, in Doncaster. They built a giant 'Big If' out of cardboard boxes right outside the door.

The Energy and Climate Change Secretary graciously came out to talk to them. They told him that this sort of action was a sign of the shape of things to come if he consents to a new generation of coal power stations, starting with Kingsnorth in Kent. They then handed over to the minister some of the 6000 pledges which we've collected, over a thousand of which promise to take non-violent direct action to stop Kingsnorth going ahead.

And yesterday Mr Miliband came face to face with more Big IF supporters outside the Department of Energy and Climate Change in London. Members of the RSPB, Oxfam, Christian Aid, WWF and the World Development Movement, joined Greenpeace in an anti-coal vigil, to which activists bought pictures of what's at stake - forests, glaciers, the Kent coastline, British birds, people in developing countries - if Ed makes the wrong decision and says yes to new coal.

The 'Disciples for Justice' choir, from Christian Aid, kept the crowd singing in harmony to encourage Miliband to come and talk to them. When he did, Ed was faced with a barrage of astute questions and points which tested his current position. He continues to feels we need new coal power in the UK in order to test CCS for the sake of the wider world.

Several campaigners challenged him on this, saying that such tests could be done on existing coal, and should be tested in the countries that will need CCS, there was no need to build new power stations in the UK. Whilst he respectfully resisted our points, it was clear that the ongoing pressure we have placed on Ed is having an effect.

And Parliament hasn’t even opened yet! In the lead up to Copenhagen in December, we have our best chance of getting coal consigned to the UK history books. As the noise begins to build around a global deal, we have to ensure that our government can't avoid the link between domestic policy and global policy, and proves to the world its commitment to stopping climate change by making a strong decision against building new coal. To that end, we have to keep the pressure up on Miliband until he goes to Copenhagen.

If you haven't already, do sign up to the Big If at and ask all your friends to sign up too. If you need inspiration about what to pledge, watch this great film of some of those who've already made their pledges to help stop new dirty coal plants being built across the UK.

Video: saying NO to dirty coal

jossc — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:30:27 +0000

Since the Big If pledge launched in March, when Age of Stupid actor Pete Postletwaite promised the UK Energy and Climate Change minister Ed Miliband that he would return his OBE if the government gave the go-ahead for a new coal power station Kingsnorth, thousands of people have joined him in making pledges of their own.

Greenpeace UK has been a core member of the Big If coalition from the start, together with a wide range of other organisations including the RSPB, World Development Movement, Oxfam and the Women's Institute. Because if Kingsnorth and the other 10 plants planned to follow it get built, then we'll have next to no chance of meeting our CO2 reduction targets and reining in runaway climate change.

The first major coalition event was the Mili-band - a symbolic surrounding of the Kingsnorth site in July, and others are planned in the near future. Each organisation has asked its supporters to pledge what they are prepared to do if Ed Miliband does give the go-ahead to new coal. The actual pledges vary depending on the nature of the organisation.

Here at Greenpeace we've already signed up nearly 6,000 people, who've variously agreed to either:

vote at the next election for political candidates who oppose new coal;
join a protest at the Department of Energy and Climate Change;
take non-violent direct action to prevent the new plant being built;

...or make some other useful protest of their own devising.

We recently sent this video of pledgees to Ed Miliband. It features not only a wide range of of Greenpeace activists and supporters, but also some clued-up celebrities who gave us their support at Glastonbury - including Franz Ferdinand lead singer Alex Kapranos, comedian Mark Thomas, and singers VV Brown and K T Tunstall.

The latest 'coal consultation' comes to a close on 9 September. Thanks to the high levels of protest about these half-baked plans to return Britain to a new coal age, no decision on Kingsnorth has yet been reached, but that's no guarantee that it won't be soon. So we are planning more Big If events over the autumn to keep up the pressure on Ed, and to act as a constant reminder to him that IF he makes the wrong decision on coal, there are likely to to BIG consequences.

Take Action

Sign the Big If pledge today and let Ed know what you will do if Kingsnorth gets the go-ahead. If you've already signed, then please ask your family and friends to do so as well.

Video: Mili-band at Kingsnorth power station

reto — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:23:40 +0000

Finally, here's the video from the Mili-Band event when over a thousand people went to Kingsnorth to form a giant human chain around the coal-fired power plant. We were have all busy with the actions in Italy and the US last week, so we didn't have time to put this together earlier. But enjoy!

What you can do
Join the Big IF and help stop dirty coal

This kind of thing should be (Mili)band

christian — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:52:03 +0000

They came, they stood, they formed a giant human chain around Kingsnorth. The Miliband was formed with bodies and yellow sashes, and made up of over a thousand people!

...who made the 2 mile walk in the blistering sun...

...to surround the perimeter fence of Kingsnorth power station...

...with a clear message to the government and E.ON.

The Mili-band Live!

christian — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:31:26 +0000

Today we're down at Kingsnorth for the Mili-band - building a human chain around Kingsnorth to say no to dirty coal. It's a fun summer fete for the climate, and we're updating live from the scene...

Video: 20,000 tonne coal shipment stopped from reaching Kingsnorth

jossc — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:22:34 +0000

Last night Greenpeace volunteers boarded E.ON's moving bulk freighter Sir Charles Parsons, carrying thousands of tonnes of coals to restock the Kingsnorth coal-fired power station.

They intercepted the freighter using rigid inflatable speedboats just after midnight as the ship sped up the River Medway towards Kingsnorth, then attached climbing ladders to the vessel and scaled the 15 metre hull. Three teams comprising nine people succeeded in boarding the ship. They then scaled the ship's huge funnel and the towering foremast to stop the ship from unloading.

The ship is now docked at the Kingsnorth quayside, but no coal has yet been unloaded. The intention is to delay the offloading of the coal cargo for as long as possible. Police are on the scene and have already made six arrests, but we still have four volunteers aboard with enough food and water to stay for several days, if necessary.

Take Action

What will you do to stope a new generation of dirty, climate-wrecking coal power plants. Take the Big If pledge now and say NO to new dirty coal.

Swimming towards a coal ship - Greenpeace campaigners block coal delivery to Kingsnorth

christian — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:43:29 +0000

Around midnight three of my colleagues eased themselves off one of the Greenpeace inflatable speedboats and into the cold water of the river Medway in Kent.

It's difficult to imagine what must be going through your mind in that situation - in the dark, in the cold water, with the looming lights of a large ship getting closer. But however difficult to imagine it is, it must have been even more difficult to do, because Cathy, Emma and Hannah knew that they were swimming out into the channel to block a coal freighter carrying twenty thousand tonnes of coal from docking at the Kingsnorth jetty.

Audio interview: Sarah, one of the activists aboard the coal freighter gives us an update on what's been going on (apologies for the poor sound quality) - just click the play button below.

Video: Watch the video highlights from the ship boarding and an interview with volunteer Sarah Shoraka from the mast of the E.on ship.

As they made their swim - on one of the shortest nights of the year - more Greenpeace volunteers flagged the ship down with flares and banners, pulled alongside and clambered up the steep metal sides, across the deck, and on up the mast and funnel. They secured themselves in place and waited for the calls from the morning news shows.

Looking down from the mast of the ship.

The funnel carries the logo of E.ON, the German energy company who operate the power station at Kingsnorth. E.ON would like to build another coal-fired power station on the site, and the place should be a building site by now. But the plans have been opposed by environmental experts and campaigners, met with indecision from government, and been delayed again and again.

Despite recent government assurances that any new coal fired power stations will capture the carbon they release into the atmosphere, the devil in the detail means that a new plant at Kingsnorth would still pump three quarters of its carbon into the atmosphere - six million tonnes of CO2 a year, a phenomenal amount.

Does this explain why someone would voluntarily swim into the path of a coal ship? My colleague Emma, one of the swimmers who lives in nearby Whitstable, explained what was going through her mind before the action: "There's no way we can stop climate change if power companies are allowed to keep on burning so much coal. I'm terrified by the scale of the problem my children will have to deal with. We have to give the next generation a chance of beating global warming, and that's why I'm putting my body in the way of that ship."

In terms of greenhouse gases, coal is the dirtiest fuel there is. Coal plants lead to carbon emissions which drive climate change - which threatens people and property around the world from increased risk of flooding, drought, water shortage and extreme weather events. We want to see strong government leadership on energy policy in the run up to the Copenhagen climate summit in December. All of this is why we intervene to stop dirty coal power from becoming the future of Britain's energy.

But while this might explain why Greenpeace campaigns on coal, I'm not sure if it can explain how you put yourself in a place where you're floating in front of an oncoming ship because you've realised that a time comes when this is what the reality of coal's role in driving climate change demands of you.

Greenpeace UK - Kingsnorth

Coal: going, going, gone?

More questions than answers from the government's coal policy

Case for coal crumbles as Kingsnorth is shelved

A big week for the Big If

Video: saying NO to dirty coal

Video: Mili-band at Kingsnorth power station

This kind of thing should be (Mili)band

The Mili-band Live!

Video: 20,000 tonne coal shipment stopped from reaching Kingsnorth

Swimming towards a coal ship - Greenpeace campaigners block coal delivery to Kingsnorth