Coal power makes UK a ‘climate criminal’

The UK is set to become a ‘climate criminal’ if plans to build a coal-fired power station in Kent are not averted, environmental campaigners have warned.

Writing to climate change minister Ed Miliband, the World Development Movement (WDM) demanded plans for Kingsnorth power station to be scrapped.

Installing new coal-fired power plants will increase the burden of climate change on poor countries, WDM warned in its letter, signed by 27 organisations from over 40 developing countries including Bangladesh, Brazil, Uganda, Cambodia, and Indonesia.

If Kingsnorth gets the go ahead, climate change negotiations will be “shot to pieces”, the letter said.

“Coal power is the most climate-polluting way to generate electricity,” the letter reads.

It continues: “New coal power stations in the UK will exacerbate the impacts of climate change on impoverished communities in the global South”

“A decision to support new coal power stations will confirm the UK as a climate criminal in the international climate change negotiations.”

Emissions from rich countries are to blame for the increased “floods droughts, sea levels and disease” that threaten “hundreds of millions of people” in the developing world, the letter said.

The letter also attacked carbon trading schemes as having ‘continuous’ negative impact on developing countries whilst failing to reduce global emissions.

The Department for Energy and Climate Change responded with a statement, which read: “We are determined to do all we can to cut CO2 in our atmosphere.

“A decision on Kingsnorth has not been taken yet, and is not expected until the government finalises its policy on carbon capture readiness.”