Coal Stations Will Be 'Lightning Rod' for Global Dissent, Warns UK Watchdog's Head

Coal Stations Will Be 'Lightning Rod' for Global Dissent, Warns UK Watchdog's Head

New head of Sustainable Development Commission condemns 'clean coal' and Heathrow expansion plans

by

David Adam

Fiddlers Ferry coal-fired power station near Liverpool. (Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters)

The new head of the UK government's official green watchdog has strongly criticised moves to build new coal-fired power stations in Britain and condemned the planned expansion of Heathrow.

In his first major interview since taking office, Will Day, the incoming chair of the Sustainable Development Commission
(SDC), told the Guardian that construction of new coal stations, such
as the planned Eon Kingsnorth facility in Kent, would provide a
"lightning rod" for international protest.

Flights must be made more expensive to discourage people from flying to foreign holidays.

Politicians must make unpopular decisions to tackle global warming

Day
stressed his views were personal and not those of the SDC, but their
uncompromising tone is likely to reassure green campaigners. Day, the
former chief executive of relief and development group Care
International, was appointed SDC chair following the departure of Jonathan Porritt, who was a regular and vocal critic of government efforts on the environment.

On
new coal power stations, Day said: "Science is unequivocal about the
impact of carbon on our environment. Every time scientists go back to
measure ice and water levels and those things it gets worse. We should
not be adding to that problem. And when someone says "oh no, it will becarbon capture and storage
ready", well show me where it's working, seriously working. Show me how
it's going to be implemented on existing stock, let alone new stock."

He
added: "There is no such thing as a free lunch and we're not going to
get a free lunch around coal. So my view would be if the government
wants to provide a lightning rod for public disagreement or dissent
around coal, then start building a new coal-fired power station, and
the orang-utan costumes will be dusted off from around the planet and
people will come and say this is wrong. And two wrongs don't make a
right. People say "oh there is one a week opening in China". And? I
don't think that's a good enough reason."

Day said he disagreed with Ed Miliband, climate and energy secretary, on whether mass air travel could be preserved in a low-carbon world. Miliband told the Guardian last month:
"Where I disagree with other people on aviation is if you did 80% cuts
across the board, as some people have called for on aviation, you would
go back to 1974 levels of flying. I don't want to have a situation
where only rich people can afford to fly."

Day said: "Politicians
are there to make the hard decisions. And there are some really hard
decisions coming up. And they're hard because they're not the kind of
decisions that individuals particularly want to have taken. How many
short- to medium-haul flight holidays does anyone really need to have a
year? Ed Miliband interestingly said something like 'don't worry your
holiday flights are safe with me'. But we know that we need to be
encouraging and supporting, through a combination of stick and carrot,
some change to behaviours."

He added: "Part of the difficult
decision is going to be a rebalancing of what things cost. If we say we
must pay the true price of the impact of carbon on the environment. The
hard decision is do you price the impact of an aeroplane flying through
the air properly, really properly, and not a kind of £1.20 carbon
offset. The objective is to reduce the amount of carbon put into the
upper atmosphere by planes by pricing it out."

He said: [Flights]
will continue but there will be fewer of them, and they will be
properly priced. And people will be able to make decisions based on
their decision to afford. They're not being told they cannot go on
holiday, they are being told this is what it costs."

Further

In the face of increasingly catastrophic climate news - rising sea levels, wildfires, drought - a team of Russian photographers with the non-profit AirPano have taken to the air in helicopters, airplanes, dirigibles and hot air balloons to offer virtual and panoramic tours of the planet's most stunning locations, urban to wilderness, to remind us what's at stake. Take note.