A petition against Kingsnorth power station was due to be handed to the Government today (Saturday August 22nd 2009).

It had originally been planned to hand over the protest, with more than 1,600 signatures opposing plans to build a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth on Tuesday.

Oscar nominated actor Pete Postlethwaite has joined the campaign to stop new coal at Kingsnorth:

"At the premiere of our climate film, The Age of Stupid, in March this year, I told climate minister Ed Miliband that if the UK government does say yes to Kingsnorth, they would clearly be unfit to represent the people of Britain and I would give my OBE back to the queen in protest.

Coal is the biggest single cause of climate change, an injustice that is already devastating the lives of the world’s poorest people. Unless we act, things will only get worse - we cannot allow this to happen.

Since I made my pledge, Ed Miliband has made a step forward by proposing to capture a quarter of the emissions from Kingsnorth. This shows that campaigning really can make a difference. But Ed’s proposals are not enough. Even if they are successful, Kingsnorth could still be responsible for creating more than 20,000 climate refugees. It is outrageous that the government is considering more dirty coal at Kingsnorth. It would not only make a mockery of their climate targets, and loose them any credibility at the global talks on climate action, but would also be a climate catastrophe in itself."

Watch Pete's video below - and sign up to the big if at: www.theBigIF.org
 

The World Development Movement welcomed Ed Miliband’s announcement that there is no place for unabated coal in our energy future at a time of climate crisis. However, the campaign group branded the funding of carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a  "giant gamble with the climate".

The proposed new plant at Kingsnorth in Kent could alone emit as much as the whole of Ghana each year.

“I’m delighted that the Minister has finally recognised there is no place for unabated coal at this time of climate crisis.” said Benedict Southworth, WDM’s Director.

But the Government is committing billions of pounds of taxpayers money on a technology [CCS] that remains untested on a large scale and may never be economically viable. It is also yet to be proven that climate damaging carbon dioxide emissions can be stored safely underground.”

“It is critical that the UK government provides a guarantee that if the gamble fails we won’t be left with massively polluting plants.”

Power companies must now recognise that new coal fired power stations cannot go ahead without being full CCS from the start, otherwise there will be no guarantee they will be cost effective by 2025.

Lord Stern of Brentford, the economist who worked out that not doing anything to stop climate change would work out more expensive than living with it has now joined the not-so-exclusive club of people who think Kingsnorth and new coal is a bad idea.

"We shouldn't go ahead because coal is so polluting and we need very strong examples of how to move forward with our electricity supply in a way that doesn't use coal... without carbon capture and storage," Lord Stern said.

There are other ways we can handle the interim," he said. "The fastest way is to put up a gas-fired power station. That is emitting, but much less so than coal. We've got to build up solar and wind."

So there you have it - yet another nail in the coffin for Kingsnorth (we're beginning to run out of space).