coal
Last edited 3 January 2008 at 12:07pm
Gordon Brown today faces his biggest test since pledging to put Britain at the forefront of efforts to combat climate change, after a proposal to build the UK's first coal fired power station in over thirty years landed on his desk.
E.ON's application to build the station at Kingsnorth was given the go-ahead by Medway council last night. The Tory controlled authority has raised no objection to a plant that would emit over eight million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year. Now the final decision on a UK coal resurgence will be made by Brown.
Posted by bex — 3 January 2008 at 11:15am
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It will be the UK's first new coal fired power plant in 34 years. It will emit as much carbon dioxide as the 30 least polluting nations in the world combined. And the world's leading climate scientist has called it "a tipping point for the world".
The proposal for a new coal-fired power plant at Kingsnorth in Kent has been given the go-ahead by Medway Council. At a meeting last night, only three of the 16 councillers objected to E.ON's application,
meaning that the plant - which will generate electricity in the most
climate-wrecking way known to humankind - has been approved, potentially starting a new coal rush in the UK.
Posted by bex — 19 December 2007 at 1:05pm
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A couple of days ago, I wrote that leading climate scientist and director of Nasa's Goddard Institute James Hansen was planning to write to Gordon Brown, urging him to stop the new coal rush in the UK.
Here's the full text of that letter. It's powerful stuff, and piles the pressure onto Gordon Brown ahead of next month's decision by Medway Council, on whether to allow the first new coal plant in 30 years to be built at Kingsnorth.
Last edited 19 December 2007 at 12:59pm
NASA expert tells PM, "You have the potential to influence the future of the planet"
Dr James Hansen, the world's leading climate scientist, has today written a remarkable letter to Gordon Brown telling the Prime Minister his energy policy could be a "tipping point for the world."
Hansen is best known for his research in the field of climatology and his testimony on climate change to congressional committees in the 1980s that helped raise broad awareness of the global warming issue.
Posted by bex — 17 December 2007 at 4:02pm
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It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise that building a load of new coal power plants probably isn't the brightest idea for the future of our planet, but it's nice when a rocket scientist comes out and says it.
The director of Nasa's Goddard Institute
for Space Studies, Dr. James Hansen, has joined the debate on the UK's the new coal rush, and is writing to Gordon Brown to urge him to block plans to
build up to eight new coal-fired power stations.
Last edited 14 December 2007 at 4:12pm
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:
Posted by jossc — 6 December 2007 at 2:02pm
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Nobel
peace prize winner Al Gore would be proud. A few months ago, he said "I can't
understand why there aren't rings of young people blocking bulldozers and
preventing them from constructing coal-fired power stations." The people of Merthyr
Tydfil in South Wales have taken him at his word (albeit one step further back
in the supply chain) to shut down work on Britain's biggest ever open-cast
coal mine.
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Posted by jamie — 26 November 2007 at 5:47pm
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The results of the Australian federal election this weekend have stirred up waves of excitement not only in our antipodean offices but also around the world in anticipation that the country's government will finally, at long last, ratify the international Kyoto agreement on climate change.
According to Greenpeace Australia, it was an election in which climate change was one of the top issues (but don't just take their word for it, the BBC thought so too) and changes are already afoot. Out-going prime minister John Howard is replaced by Labor's Kevin Rudd who, as part of his manifesto, pledged to ratify Kyoto, an action that could have far-reaching consequences for global climate politics.
Along with the US, Australia is the only big polluting country involved in the Kyoto process not to have ratified. If Rudd honours his promise, it will leave George Bush without the support he received from Australia in his stick-in-the-mud attitude towards Kyoto, and make him even more isolated in the twilight months of his administration.
Last edited 1 January 1970 at 1:00am
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