Campaigners call on Scottish government to scrap dirty coal in Scotland.

Responding to the news that plans for a new coal fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent have been put on hold, environment and development organisations in Scotland have called for plans for a new coal plant at Hunterston in Ayrshire to be dropped.

Research undertaken by independent energy analysts Garrad Hassan, and recently published by the organisations, shows that Scotland can meet or exceed its electricity needs without such additional thermal power stations.

Liz Murray, Head of Scottish Campaigns for the World Development Movement, who are campaigning to stop new coal plants at Kingsnorth and Hunterston, said:

“The fact that E.ON is postponing its plans for the new coal power plant at Kingsnorth should ring alarm bells for the Scottish Government and Danish energy company DONG, who is planning to invest in a similar sized coal plant at Hunterston in Ayrshire.   In the knowledge that its world-leading climate legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 42% by 2020 will mean a continuing drop in demand for carbon intensive energy, the Scottish Government should call a halt to the Hunterston proposal now and focus fully on renewable electricity instead.”

Juliet Swann, Head of Projects and Campaigns at Friends of the Earth Scotland added:

“Kingsnorth has been a key target for campaigners and this announcement shows how embarrassing that action has been for E.ON and the UK Government. With local opposition growing in Ayrshire, and actions planned in Edinburgh and Copenhagen, the Scottish Government and DONG should be wary of the bad publicity associated with a continued commitment to an unnecessary dirty coal power plant at Hunterston.”

WWF Scotland’s Director, Dr Richard Dixon, said:

“This decision finally exposes the tactic used by some energy companies - that the lights will go out if their new power station plan is not approved - as little more than scaremongering. The research we recently published with others makes it clear that Scotland does not need any new unabated coal-fired power stations. Ministers should take this opportunity to develop a truly sustainable energy strategy that instead harnesses this country’s abundant natural renewable energy resource.”

EON have confirmed that they had shelved plans for the controversial Kingsnorth coal plant in Kent. The news of the victory spread like wild fire, and the 'Stop Kingsnorth' campaigners received it via text at a coal debate in Rochester, hosted jointly by the World Development Movement and the local campaigning group, Kingsnorth Climate Action Medway, who have been working closely for nearly two years.

The official line from E.ON was that the delay is as a result of the recession. But we have been arguing all along that we just don't need new coal power stations in the UK. The recession excuse aside, meeting renewable energy and energy efficiency targets must mean that the 'the lights will go off' rhetoric from E.ON and the government has always been nothing more than a public relations exercise to sell coal power to the public.

We have been campaigning to Stop Kingsnorth because the new power station would have emitted more CO2 than Tanzania, and could have caused 20,000 people to become homeless and meant that 100, 000 more people lost their dry water season supply. This news is a massive victory for those people. And it has come about through a massive alliance of diverse campaigns from WDM, Greenpeace, the Women's Institute, grassroots movements, like the Camp for Climate Action and campaigners from Kent and the global south. It is evidence that the pressure brought by these varied groups and the different tactics employed has made a huge impact that has stopped Kingsnorth.

It's not yet clear what the government's official reaction to this news will be, but UK's already massive and growing climate debt to the global south means that the UK must radically reduce its carbon emissions now. So the UK government must rule out new coal in the UK straight away, ahead of crucial international talks at Copenhagen. We can’t rely on energy companies to do it because of concern about profits in the recession. This is about people not profits.

Hundreds of activists from the Camp for Climate Action, Plane Stupid, Climate Rush and beyond are swooping to take control of EON’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal power plant over 17^th and 18^th October.

Join us on Wednesday October 7^th from 7pm at the Roffen Suite, Rochester, for an evening of exhibits, discussion and debate about dirty new Kingsnorth coal.

Burning coal is the biggest single cause of climate change, yet the government is still considering giving the go-ahead to a series of dirty new coal power stations, the first of which is proposed for Kingsnorth.