The UK is a world leader in climate policy, throughout the 90′s it reduced its carbon emissions whilst simultaneously experiencing sustained economic growth. Now the government will maintain that leadership by signing up to legally binding emissions reductions targets which will lead to an 80% reduction of emissions by 2050.
Perhaps from the US it looks like this is the case? Let’s talk about what is really going on.
Back in the 1990′s we had a glorious female prime minister, she accomplished amazing feats such as devastating miners’ communities, keeping a firm grip of some islands in the South Atlantic and informing members of the public that if they where to be found on public transport after the age of 25 they could safely consider themselves a failure. Well, she also privatised the energy sector. This lead to the ‘dash-to-gas’ and a considerable decarbonisation of the national energy grid as you would expect when moving away from coal.
There hadn’t been a coal plant built for some years and market economics guaranteed this wouldn’t change soon. Now some thirty years after the last coal plant was built we have a hero entering the energy policy stage. This hero is multi-national energy giant E-ON. Facing terrifying odds–a population accustomed to clean air, a political consensus on emissions cuts of 80% by 2050 and an enormous civil society coalition of more than 70 organisations–E-ON is planning a new lease of life for coal. Boldly leading the energy sector back to the stone age, EON are planning to build a 1600MW coal fired power plant at Kingsnorth in Kent.
There are probably now more websites in the UK operated by anti-coal groups than there are people in Kent. Diversity of function is the best part. There are websites dedicated to E-ON, Kingsnorth in particular, national coal developments, open cast mining, national uk campaigns, lobbying groups, direct action networks and direct action groups.
As the climate bill looks set to enter law any week now we find ourselves working harder than ever to prevent backsliding. We want action now, not in forty years time. And we want action here in the UK, not the buying of carbon credits from eastern Europe!
On October the 13th one group that rapidly developed out of the frenetic uk climate movement decided that it was time to rush parliament and demand no new coal, no aviation expansion, and a climate bill that reflects the latest science. We have no patience for government rhetoric, there is the serious work of decarbonisation to be done. The 13th was chosen as it was 100 years to the day that the Suffragettes stormed parliament to demand universal adult suffrage.
The group that i am most involved with is the Camp for Climate Action, a hugely dynamic and growing movement of people willing to participate in non-violent direct action to stop the root causes of climate change. For the last three years we have created climate protest camps, firstly at the UK’s largest coal fired power plant, then at Heathrow to protest its expansion, and most recently at Kingsnorth where they are planning a new coal plant. Next year there probably wont be a camp everyone is putting their energy into preparing for and sustaining a blockade of Kingsnorth if it gets planning permission in March as expected. We aren’t planning simply to blockade the power plant, we are planning to attack E-ON UK from all angles, highlighting the companies who give them finance, the dubious record of the imported Columbian Coal that is currently being used and organising boycotts of the banks that fund them. We have also started targeting student recruitment fairs. E-ON know that UK students care about climate change, that is why they present themselves as environmentally sound, even going so far as to claim solving climate change is their priority. At campuses around the UK, with E-On branded materials and amazing design work with have set the record straight.
So while groups representing 4 million UK citizens are giving E-ON a clear political message, we are looking to give them practical and financial difficulties.
Our next major project, to take place on Friday 28th and 29th of October, is a national call to action. Supported by Climate Camp, Plane Stupid, Coal Action Network, Campaign against Climate Change and Rising Tide amongst others. We will not allow new coal power to be built in the UK, it is too important to let this go…quite simply the UK has no legitimacy to negotiate an international climate treaty with Asia and the developing world if it is still using the most polluting form of energy known to man.
