coal

Hats off to the Kingsnorth Six for having the courage to risk prison to hold the government's misguided energy policy to account. The fact that Gordon Brown and co are planning to ramp up Britain's consumption of coal (the most climate damaging fossil fuel) had gone largely unnoticed by our mainstream media until yesterday's successful trial result. Not any more!

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It's been a pretty unusual ten days but today has been truly extraordinary. At 3.20pm, the jury came back into court and announced a majority verdict of not guilty! All six defendants - Kevin, Emily, Tim, Will, Ben and Huw - were acquitted of criminal damage.

To recap on how important this verdict is: the defendants campaigners were accused of causing £30,000 of criminal damage to Kingsnorth smokestack from painting. The defence was that they had 'lawful excuse' - because they were acting to protect property around the world "in immediate need of protection" from the impacts of climate change, caused in part by burning coal.

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A relatively short blog today (I thought you deserved it after yesterday's dissertation).

The judge finished summing up before lunch and, at 12.50pm, the jury retired to consider the verdict. By the end of the day, after a fair bit of pacing and nail biting in the defendants' camp, the jury said they hadn't yet been able to reach a unanimous verdict. So the trial - and the slightly frayed nerves - continue into Wednesday. 

The Kingsnorth Six outside Maidstone Crown Court © Rezac/Greenpeace

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Things are getting really interesting; the end of the trial is probably close (it looks as though the jury will be sent out to decide their verdict at 11.30 on Tuesday), we've seen the summing up from both the defence and the prosecution, there's been laughter and a few tears and, again, I'm going to struggle to get all my notes into a blog-sized piece.

First up was a statement (originally due on Friday) from Aqqaluk Lynge, an Inuit leader personally responsible for addressing damage to property in Greenland as a result of climate change. There's a lot of it for him to address:

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We were expecting to hear evidence from Inuit leader Aqqaluk Lynge today but, because a juror fell ill, that's been postponed until Monday. Instead, the court held a legal discussion, none of which I can write about.

We're tentatively expecting a verdict early next week but, of course, nobody really knows. At the moment though, we're on the train back to London; the defendants are tired but in good spirits, and looking forward to a short window of normality before the case resumes next week. More on Monday.

Zac Goldsmith outside Maidstone Crown Court © Rezac/Greenpeace

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First, a quick announcement: following Jim Hansen (the world's leading climate scientist) yesterday and Zac Goldsmith (environmental advisor to the Conservatives and former Ecologist editor) today, tomorrow Inuit leader Aqqaluk Lynge will be appearing court by videolink from Greenland, as a witness for the defence in the Kingsnorth Six trial. Having seen him speak before, I'm looking forward to it.

Back to today though, when Zac Goldsmith took the stand along with the last two defendants: Will and Huw.

Goldsmith was there to give a political context to the defendants' actions and, almost immediately, he told the court that there was "a staggering mismatch between what we've heard from government and what we've seen from government in terms of policy". The key points of his evidence were:

James Hansen in conversation outside Maidstone Crown Court © Rezac/Greenpeace

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This is a difficult blog to write - mostly because I'm not sure what to leave out. Today, at the Kingsnorth trial, the world's leading climate scientist told the court that emissions from Kingsnorth led to damage to property worldwide, as well as the extinction of species and the creation of climate change refugees. Gordon Brown, he said, should announce a moratorium on all new coal plants without carbon capture and storage (CCS).

Another witness - an authority on climate change impacts in the UK - said all citizens and governments needed to "act with urgency". And two of the defendants, Emily and Kevin, gave impressive testimonies about why they took the action they did. And there's nowhere near enough space to write about it all.