Reacting to comments in this morning's Financial Times interview with Ed Miliband, in which he says the government will not rule out new coal plants that don't capture and bury their emissions, Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said:
"Ed Miliband needs to immediately clarify his position on new coal plants. At the moment it looks he's chosen the week just before Christmas to slip out a deeply concerning new position on the totemic climate change issue of this decade. If that is the case then he will have rejected the pleas of the world's leading climate scientists and his own advisor, Lord Turner, who declared just a few weeks ago that we can't meet our climate targets by allowing new coal plants to pump out emissions for decades."
Miliband used his FT interview to attack the Conservative Party and its position on coal.
John Sauven continued: "Miliband is playing party politics with coal and climate change just days after he called for a huge people-powered movement on global warming. This is no way inspire action to tackle the most important issue of our time."
In September this year six Greenpeace volunteers were acquitted of causing criminal damage to the Kingsnorth smokestack after the jury accepted their claim that they acted in defence of the planet because coal plants are so polluting.
Scientists across the board - including NASA director James Hansen - have called for a moratorium on coal plants that don't have carbon capture fitted from the start. Greenpeace and other leading environmental NGOs have called for an emissions performance standard for power stations that would require them to emit no more than 350g of CO2 for every kilowatt hour of electricity generated.
ENDS
Greenpeace press office - 0207 865 8255
