The activists used industry-standard emergency signals to flag down the 400-metre-long coal train as it was slowing down along rail sidings leading to Cottam power station in Nottinghamshire. The main coal supply route to the plant, which is run by French energy giant EDF, has now been cut off.
Dozens of fully-trained Greenpeace activists have climbed onto the open coal wagons, and have started unloading the train’s climate-damaging cargo. They are carrying enough food and water supplies to occupy the train for the duration of today’s climate summit.
A highly realistic, life-size, moving polar bear puppet, previously used in National Theatre productions, has just walked up to the front of the locomotive, where it’s now stopping the train from moving. The iconic animal symbolises the six-million-strong global movement to save the Arctic from the ravages of climate change, of which coal is the main driver. [1]
Cottam power station is one of Europe’s most polluting coal plants. Together with the nearby West Burton plant, also run by EDF, they release as much carbon as the whole of Sri Lanka every year. [2]
The activists are taking action to stop the huge climate and health damage caused by the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. Energy companies have been burning unnecessary amounts of coal in the UK because it has been more lucrative for them than using gas. As a result, UK emissions from coal plants have gone up nearly 20% between 2010 and 2013. [3]
Health experts estimate that emissions from UK coal plants are responsible for 1,601 premature deaths and cost the UK up to £3.1 billion every year. [4]
The activists on top of the wagons are now unloading the cargo by shovelling the coal into sacks carrying a return to sender tag with Vladimir Putin’s name on it. The UK depends on Russia for over half (51%) of its coal imports. Last year alone, Britain’s energy companies ploughed nearly £1bn of bill payers’ money into the pockets of oligarchs with ties to the Kremlin, according to a Greenpeace investigation and analysis of HMRC figures. [5]
Greenpeace UK climate campaigner Will McCallum, who is on top of one of the coal wagons, said:
“Today we’re doing exactly what leaders in New York and here in the UK should be doing, which is to stand in the way of the massive damage to our health and climate inflicted by coal.
“Our political leaders promised voters they would put an end to dirty coal, yet the UK is burning huge amounts just because it’s more lucrative for the energy companies to use coal instead of gas. What’s worse, the government is about to lock us into many more years of coal dependence by giving the Big Six new multi-million-pound subsidies to keep their coal plants open for longer.
“The UK’s addiction to coal is giving us climate damage, air pollution, and a dangerous reliance on the Russian oligarchs who supply 51% of the UK’s coal imports. It’s time our political leaders made good on their pledges by opposing new subsidies, stopping unnecessary coal burning, and setting out a clear plan to retire our outdated coal plants within the next ten years.”
The Greenpeace blockade takes place as David Cameron prepares to lay out Britain’s plans to rein in carbon emissions at a UN-convened climate summit in New York. At the same time, opposition leader Ed Miliband is expected to use today’s speech at the Labour conference to set out his party’s position on energy and climate change.
Both Cameron and Miliband promised an end to unabated coal burning, but a recent raft of government policies could have the effect of locking Britain into many more years of dependence on coal. Ministers have already frozen a key carbon pollution tax and lobbied the EU to water down air quality standards in order to favour polluting coal plants. On top of this, they are about to launch an auction for so called ‘capacity payments’ which could see most of the Big Six energy companies bid for new taxpayer subsidies worth up to £150m a year for each coal plant. [6]
Greenpeace is calling on both leaders to make good on their pledges by opposing new subsidies for coal and setting out clear plans to phase out old coal plants within the next decade. The Lib Dems have already announced a ban on unabated coal by 2025 as part of their election manifesto [7].
The government’s own climate advisers have warned that Britain needs to retire its coal plants by the early 2020s if it is to meet legally-binding targets to cut carbon emissions. [8] A recent high-profile report by the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, jointly commissioned by the UK government, urged affluent countries like the UK to ‘accelerate early retirement of existing unabated [coal] capacity’. [9]
Greenpeace wrote a letter to all UK coal plant operators in August warning them of the health and climate impacts of burning more coal and of keeping their plants open beyond the next decade. EDF has not replied.
One of the activists on the train, Jacky Westwood, 56, a beauty therapist from South Yorkshire, said:
“Scientists agree that the fossil fuels we burn, and especially coal, are the cause of the climate crisis threatening lives across the world. The fate of entire countries and species hangs in the balance. Extending the lifespan of our polluting coal plants would only makes this worse. It’s morally indefensible.
“We have been warning our political leaders for years about the human and environmental costs of burning coal. I myself have signed petitions, written to MPs, and been on marches - but they haven’t listened. This is why today I’m taking peaceful direct action to protect the health, lives and property of people across the world from the ravages of climate change fuelled by our addiction to dirty coal.”
ENDS
For live updates check our website www.greenpeace.org.uk and our Twitter feed @GreenpeaceUK
Photos of the action available here shortly: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/h4yyeacg3pk0ozw/AACXE88DE77_ro2DhnvnH6d6a?dl=0
For footage of the action please contact photo.uk@greenpeace.org, t +44 2078658118 m +44 7817770229
A media briefing on UK coal can be found here: https://docs.google.com/a/greenpeace.org/document/d/1YVt9rfxzL3Zba5GSeEHveFivA6uISseOJJLXD5gZyHM/edit
Contacts:
For press enquiries: stefano.gelmini@greenpeace.org, t 020 7865 8255 / 8126 m 07506 512442
For pictures and videos: photo.uk@greenpeace.org, t +44 2078658118 m +44 7817770229
Notes to editors
[1] Worldwide in 2012, coal supplied 29.7 percent of energy use and was responsible for 44 percent of global CO2 emissions, according to the Pew Centre on Global Climate Change
[2] In 2006 Cottam and West Burton emitted a combined 19 million tonnes of carbon, according to the WWF’s Dirty Thirty report. In the same year Sri Lanka emits 11.7 million tonnes of CO2, according to World Bank figures.
[3] http://www.sandbag.org.uk/site_media/pdfs/reports/Europes_failure_to_tackle_coal.pdf
[4] From a 2013 study by the Health and Environmental Alliance
[5] http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/newsdesk/energy/investigations/uk-ties-russian-coal-oligarchs
[6] http://www.wwf.org.uk/about_wwf/press_centre/?unewsid=7276
[7] http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/01/lib-dems-ban-unabated-coal-power
Safety note
Greenpeace has planned this direct action with painstaking precision to ensure the safety of everyone involved. Our activists flagged down the train using rail industry best practice when it was already slowing down to enter a 5mph zone. We ensured the train was more than 3 miles away from the mainline rail track, on sidings specifically dedicated to Cottam power station, to avoid disruption to mainline passenger services. When the train came to a halt, our staff followed the instructions of the onsite Network Rail safety notice and contacted Network Rail to inform them of our location. On top of this, Greenpeace staff have attended rail safety courses and conducted a thorough risk assessment for this activity before taking the decision to proceed.
