12.30am - A dramatic stand-off is unfolding at Kingsnorth power station in Kent where climate change campaigners have boarded a moving bulk freighter carrying coal to Britain's most controversial power plant. Three women are swimming in the river Medway in front of the massive freighter and are stopping it loading while climbers are hanging off the side of the ship. Dozens of police officers and a helicopter are on the scene.
Greenpeace volunteers intercepted the freighter using rigid inflatable speedboats just after midnight this morning. As the ship sped towards Kingsnorth the campaigners attached climbing ladders to the vessel and scaled the 15 metre hull. Three teams comprising nine people succeeded in boarding the ship. They have scaled the huge E.ON-branded funnel and the towering foremast, and are demanding that the cargo turns back. The protesters have enough food and water to stay for several days.
A local mother and Greenpeace member is swimming in the Medway in front of the Kingsnorth jetty, attempting to prevent the ship from docking and unloading. Mother of three Emma Gibson - from the nearby town of Whitstable - is with two other women in the water. Before setting out on her swim she said:
"We're going to swim right in front of the approaching ship and try to stop this massive coal shipment reaching Kingsnorth power station, because coal is the most climate-wrecking fuel there is. Every tonne of carbon counts, and E.ON's ship is delivering enough coal to pump tens of thousands of tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. 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."
Land next to the existing plant at Kingsnorth has been earmarked for the construction of the first new coal-fired power station in Britain for 30 years. The highly controversial plans have sparked a series of protests, but this is the first time a coal shipment to the site has been blocked and boarded. The government claims a new Kingsnorth plant will be cleaner, but in reality under the new policy, announced in April, it would still pump three-quarters of its emissions into the atmosphere for years to come - six million tonnes of CO2 every year.
Sarah Shoraka, a Greenpeace volunteer who is hanging off the foremast of the freighter, said:
"Scientists are telling us we can't beat climate change if we keep burning coal, and yet Ed Miliband's new policies would still allow E.ON to build the dirtiest new power station in Britain for thirty years. The experts say we have the technologies we need to slash emissions and power Britain with renewable energy and more efficient use of cleaner fuels, it just needs the politicians to give them the green light. New coal plants that emit huge amounts of carbon can never be the answer."
She continued:
"A sensible energy policy would focus on getting rid of the appalling waste in our system so that we can power Britain more effectively using less fuel, while harnessing the huge potential of clean energy projects like the London Array offshore wind farm. We can do this, but first we'll need Ed Miliband to set tough new CO2 pollution limits for all new power stations, in line with what the science demands. As it is, the government's half measures would still allow E.ON to build a new plant at Kingsnorth which would emit six million tonnes of CO2 a year. That one power station would have double the annual emissions of Nepal with its 30 million people."
The Greenpeace members on board the ship say by stopping the coal cargo being burned they are protecting people and property around the world from the devastating effects of climate change.
UK decisions on coal have an international impact. This year's international meetings on climate change, designed to prepare the groundwork for the summit in Copenhagen this December, have been uniformly unproductive, and the success of the Copenhagen talks is now highly uncertain. Brown will need to do everything in his power to give the UK and EU negotiating positions political and scientific credibility, both with his policies and his presence, if there is to be a chance of a meaningful agreement.
The G8 meeting in Italy on the July 8th provides a key opportunity to go into Copenhagen with some progress having been made. Greenpeace urges the prime minister to seize this opportunity to show some leadership and rescue his legacy.
ENDS
Greenpeace press office - 07932 842266 or 07801 212967 or 0207 865 8255
Video and stills available
To arrange a live video broadcast interview - using Skype - with people occupying the foremast, call press office.
Notes:
* Government projections for climate impacts in the UK were released last week, showing the enormous threat posed by continued high emissions. Kent is due to undergo some of the most extreme changes, with projections for South Eastern England's temperatures in 2050 ranging from a 1.3 to a 3.3 degree increase. Much of the Kent coast is vulnerable to increased flooding, including the Hoo peninsula where Kingsnorth power station stands.
* The single greatest threat to the climate comes from burning coal. Coal-fired generation is historically responsible for most of the fossil-fuel CO2 in the air today, about half of all fossil-fuel carbon dioxide emissions globally.1
* Coal-fired power generation is the most environmentally damaging means of generating electricity yet devised. In fact, in carbon terms, coal is the dirtiest fuel known to man.2
* As we close old coal-fired and nuclear power stations in the next decade we will lose capacity currently providing around a quarter of our electricity output. But Gordon Brown committed to European legal targets which require us to generate up to 40% of our electricity from renewables alone by 2020, and the UK also has fairly ambitious energy efficiency targets.3 According to Europe's leading independent energy experts, Poyry, if the UK was to hit these existing renewables and efficiency targets, there will be no ‘energy gap.' In other words, we can keep the lights on and cut emissions, and in the long run bring down fuel bills too - all without any new coal-fired plants.4
* The world's pre-eminent climate scientist, Professor James Hansen, who is director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, is so concerned about plans for new coal plants in Britain that he has campaigned to stop Kingsnorth. He argued that with the Kingsnorth decision Ministers have the potential to influence "the future of the planet."5
* The government's own climate advisers, the Committee on Climate Change, advised the Prime Minister in December 2008 that no coal station - old or new - should be allowed to operate without fully functioning CCS by the early 2020s.
* Emissions Performance Standards for all new power stations introduced immediately that rule our unabated coal plants, with a tapered standard for 2020 that would apply equally to old plant, would provide a cast iron guarantee that high emissions would be illegal. Only a measure such as this avoids the risk of high-carbon lock in and ensures that only low-carbon power is generated.
1 Dr. James E. Hansen, open letter to Gordon Brown, December 2007 http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/letter-to-the-prime-minister-20071219
2 IPCC Working Group III Fourth Assessment Report chapter 4 table 4.9
Supercritical coal plants emit 710gCO2/Kwh compared to 404gCO2/Kwh for CCGT (gas), for example.
3 The UK efficiency target is to achieve an 18% reduction in end-use energy demand against current rates of increase.
4 http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto073120082322523374&page=2
5 Dr. James E. Hansen, open letter to Gordon Brown, December 2007 http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/letter-to-the-prime-minister-20071219
