The renowned NASA climate scientist Dr James Hansen today challenged Gordon Brown to end UK moves to build new coal-fired power stations.
Energy giant E.ON is currently seeking permission to build the country's first new coal-fired plant for more than thirty years at Kingsnorth in Kent. Now Hansen is writing to Brown explaining why he thinks it is crucial that Britain rules out the plan.
Speaking at the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the largest gathering of the year for Earth scientists, Dr Hansen said:
"It appears that it is not recognised that we're going to have to phase out coal use except where we capture the carbon dioxide; or we're going to produce a different planet. It's going to include loss of all the Arctic sea ice, it's going to include large sea-level rise and large regional climate effects."
The senior NASA scientist was one of the first people to raise the issue of global warming. He now says that if Brown makes the right decision it could prove to be the 'tipping point' that persuades other nations to follow with cleaner technologies. The Kingsnorth proposal is just the first in a raft of plans for new coal-fired power stations.
Greenpeace climate campaigner Joss Garman said: "Gordon Brown will never receive a more important delivery than Dr Hansen's letter. The world's leading climate scientist is telling the prime minister that a field in Kent is now a major front line in the fight against global warming."
He continued: "A new Kingsnorth would emit more CO2 more than the thirty least polluting countries in the world combined, but it doesn't have to be built. If Brown says no to new coal he will deliver a huge boost to the clean technologies we need to roll out if we're to avert dangerous climate change."
Dr Hansen also challenged Germany to rule out new coal. The letter he is drafting to Gordon Brown cites figures for 'per capita cumulative emissions'. These are the total emissions of carbon dioxide from the late 18th Century onwards. On this basis, even though other nations put out more CO2 today, the UK can be viewed as the world's 'biggest emitter' because Britain led the industrial revolution.
In October, Greenpeace volunteers shut down the coal conveyor at Kingsnorth and scaled the 220m chimney before painting the prime minister's name down the side. Five men and one woman and are expected to face a crown court trial next year.
ENDS
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