I blocked a coal train to protest against Britain’s addiction to this dirty fuel
|
Version 0 of 1. As world leaders were gathering in New York for a crucial climate summit on Tuesday, I and around 50 other Greenpeace activists stopped a 400-metre train carrying more than 1,000 tonnes of coal to Cottam power station in Nottinghamshire. For the next 10 hours we attempted to empty the train of its climate-wrecking cargo and in the process blocked off the coal supply routes to both Cottam and the West Burton power station, which together emit more carbon than Sri Lanka every year. What we did is what global leaders must do if they are serious about tackling climate change. They too need to stand in the way of the damage to our climate and health inflicted by this dirty fuel. Coal is the number one threat to our climate, making up around 44% of global carbon dioxide emissions. Yet the countries represented at the summit are still burning billions of tonnes of this dangerous stuff every year, driving up the carbon pollution that is warming our planet. David Cameron, who spoke at the summit, is one of the world leaders with a substantial coal problem in his own backyard. After years of steady decline, coal has made an unexpected comeback in Britain’s energy system. Last year, the dirtiest of all fossil fuels held the top spot in the UK energy mix as it generated more than 36% of Britain’s electricity. Two hundred years after the start of the industrial revolution, the UK is once again a nation running on coal. This is all the more absurd when you consider that at least on paper, coal plants such as Cottam should be on the way out. Tougher EU air quality standards coupled with measures to slash carbon pollution, such as the UK carbon floor price and the EU’s carbon market, should have put an expiry date at some point in the early 2020s for our ageing coal plants. The government’s climate advisers have warned that coal plants need to come offline within the next decade if the UK is to keep on track to meet its climate obligations. And Cameron himself, before coming to power, promised to put an end to unabated coal burning. Yet, a combination of favourable market conditions and government policies have given old coal a new lease of life. As cheap coal from overseas has flooded the European market, energy companies have started burning a lot more of it simply because it’s more lucrative for them than using gas. Instead of being a last resort, coal has become energy firms’ fuel of choice. The glut of cheap coal has helped the big six energy firms prop up their profit margins, but has left everyone else worse off. Carbon pollution from UK coal plants went up by 19% between 2010 and 2013, and in 2012 was equal to the overall carbon emissions of Norway and Sweden combined. Public health experts estimate that coal fumes are now responsible for 1,600 premature deaths a year in the UK, as well as more than 340,000 lost working days, costing the economy up to £3bn. And for all the talk about making Britain more energy-independent, our country now finds itself importing 51% of its coal from Russia, with about £1bn of UK bill payers’ money going to line the pockets of a clique of oligarchs with ties to Vladimir Putin. The irony is that cheap coal hasn’t even translated into cheaper energy bills for consumers. What’s worse, a raft of coal-friendly government policies could lock Britain into many more years of coal dependence. Back in March, chancellor George Osborne froze a tax on polluting fuels that was supposed to make coal increasingly expensive to burn. A recent Guardian investigation revealed that the environment department has been lobbying the EU on behalf of one of Britain’s most polluting coal plants to water down measures to limit emissions of toxic chemicals. And to top it all off, in December ministers will make available new subsidies worth hundreds of millions of pounds to energy companies so they can carry on burning coal. For all these reasons, the hundreds of tonnes of dirty coal we blocked yesterday are hundreds of tonnes of dirty coal we don’t need to burn. They are bad for our climate, our health and our energy security. The activists who occupied the coal train had already tried every possible avenue to stop the cycle of dependence and destruction fuelled by coal. We have all been on marches. We have all signed petitions. We have all lobbied our MPs. But no one listened. This is why we decided to put our liberty on the line by taking peaceful direct action. We wanted 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. At the summit, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, invited world leaders to up the ante and lay out ambitious plans to slash carbon emissions. This could have been a golden opportunity for Cameron to restore some colour to his fading green credentials by announcing an end to unabated coal burning in the UK. And he nearly did. A pledge to phase out dirty coal within the next 10-15 years was in the original speech, but wasn’t read out by the prime minister because of lack of time. What could have been the keystone of a serious policy to clean up Britain’s energy system was casually dropped like a footnote. If Cameron is committed to shifting Britain to a low-carbon economy, he must use the next available opportunity to stamp a clear expiry date for our polluting old coal plants. And Labour should do the same. After all, this is about putting the interests of our climate, health and energy security before the profit margins of energy companies. We’re not asking for much. |