Coal

Will the real Ed Miliband please stand up?

Posted by jossc — 22 December 2008 at 3:51pm - Comments

Coal power - no thanks!

Ed Miliband demonstrated the confusion at the of the heart of the government's energy and climate change strategies this morning when he refused to rule out new coal plants which don't capture and bury their emissions – just weeks after his own advisers warned there was no future for these power plants.

He attacked Conservative plans for the introduction of green standards for power stations that would rule out the dirtiest coal plants like E.ON's for Kingsnorth, as "knee jerk" and "not thought through". Apparently, he's happy to play party politics with coal and climate change, just days after he called for a people-powered movement on global warming. Hardly the way to inspire action on the most important issue of our time.

Greenpeace podcast: A tale of two ships

Posted by jamie — 18 December 2008 at 4:03pm - Comments

Our podcast has skipped a month, but then with the Rainbow Warrior gracing our shores things have been a tad busy around here of late. As you may know, she was here in October as part of the international Quit Coal tour, and we went to meet some of the Greenpeace supporters who came to have a look round during the open boat days.

Also on our radar was the recent Indonesia tour undertaken by that other Greenpeace ship, the Esperanza. I was lucky enough to be there and while the crew were busy painting and blockading palm oil tankers in Sumatra, I was able to talk to them about what it's like being in the middle of a major piece of direct action.

And you'll have to excuse my froggy throat in the introduction, there's a cold going around the office.

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Clean coal - the reality

Posted by jossc — 10 December 2008 at 3:34pm - Comments

Clean coal technology like this is at work right now in a coal-fired power station near you

Clean coal technology like this is at work right now in a coal-fired power station near you

Energy companies putting in bids to run new coal-fired power stations have been quick to seize upon carbon capture and storage (CCS) as the ideal solution to their biggest problem - explaining why they're so keen to return to using the dirtiest fossil-fuel possible at a time when we need to cut CO2 emissions dramatically to reign-in climate change.

A Google bomb for Eon

Posted by jamie — 8 December 2008 at 2:54pm - Comments

The noble art of Google bombing - of making a website rise up the search results by encouraging other websites to link to them in a particular way - is being harnessed by blogs campaigning against new coal-fired power stations, especially Kingsnorth. The idea is to make the No New Coal website appear at the top of the list anytime a search is done for 'Eon' (which is, of course, the company so intent on building a plant at Kingsnorth).

Anyone with a website, blog or profile on the likes of MySpace or Facebook can help out, so if you'd like to help here are the full instructions I purloined from Climate Change Action:

Turner report advises against new coal plants

Posted by jossc — 4 December 2008 at 12:15pm - Comments

Carbon dinosaur? Ferrybridge coal-fired power station in Yorkshire

The Turner Report - a nail in the coffin of coal-fired power?

Lord Turner's Committee on Climate Change, which reported to the government on Monday, has gone a long way towards ruling out new coal plants like Kingsnorth from playing a role in any future UK energy mix.

As Poznan continues, it's chimney climbing time

Posted by jamie — 2 December 2008 at 1:25pm - Comments

Greenpeace climbers make their way to the top of the Pątnów power coal fired power station chimney near Konin, western Poland.

Two climbers plan their ascent © Greenpeace/Rose

As the climate negotiations rumble on at Poznan in Poland, down the road at the coal power plant a group of Greenpeace climbers have scaled 150 metres up the chimney stack to hang 'Quit coal' banners, while another group has blocked the main entrance gate.

One of the climbers is Will, one of the Kingsnorth Six who were recently acquitted on charges arising from a similar action at (where else?) Kingsnorth power station in Kent - in fact, Will is providing the photos from the top of the chimney.

Actions not words needed at Poznan

Posted by jossc — 1 December 2008 at 11:54am - Comments


EU leaders - 20 years of broken promises...

On 11 December at Poznan in Poland, our governments will decide Europe's response to climate change for the next 12 years. Unless they agree to at least 30 per cent cuts in European greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, we'll have no chance of keeping global warming below 2°C and avoiding climate catastrophe.

So far there is still an utter lack of any kind of visionary leadership in these talks. There are still governments that repeatedly fail to grasp the urgency of the crisis. That's why we need to make ourselves heard, because the impacts of climate change are racing ahead of the scientific projections.

The true cost of coal and the men making you pay it

Posted by jossc — 28 November 2008 at 3:31pm - Comments

Greenpeace activists tell major global polluters in Poland to "Get Serious, Quit Coal".

If we're to avert catastrophic climate change the world must quit coal. But the industry and the powerful forces which rely on it won't go down without a fight. Yesterday, in Warsaw, Greenpeace provided them with two reminders of why we all need to quit coal.

Peaceful protesters attacked by miners in Poland

Posted by jossc — 24 November 2008 at 6:06pm - Comments
Greenpeace volunteers in Polish open pit coal mine

 

Peaceful protesters from the our Climate Rescue Station were attacked by mine workers today as they entered the vast Jóźwin IIB open pit mine near Konin in Poland. As they prepared to paint a huge "Stop" sign next to a giant excavator, the activists were assaulted and prevented from carrying out their peaceful protest. A journalist accompanying them was also beaten.

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