Last week campaigners were celebrating the government's plans for 80% emissions cuts by 2050 in the climate change bill - cuts that would be necessary to avoid the worst effects of climate change, and which should make projects like Kingsnorth and the new generation of coal redundant.

However, there is a flaw in the bill; the target does not need to be met by cutting emissions in the UK. Instead, the government envisages buying its way out of much of the problem by purchasing offsets from poorer nations, while continuing to emit in the UK.

Sweeping emissions cuts under the carpet is not the solution: MPs need to vote for an amendment to the climate change bill which ensures targets for reducing emissions are met primarily through action in the UK. To head off climate change without compounding its injustices, countries such as the UK must show it is possible to switch to a low-carbon economy.

You can take action by writing to your MP on the World Development Movement website - MPs will vote on the bill on Tuesday 28th October.

http://www.wdm.org.uk/climatebill

No More Coal: Campaigners from Kingsnorth Climate Action Medway were in Brussels today. They were protesting on the day of votes by MEPs on the EU climate change and energy policies.

Today’s, report from the influential committee on climate change has recommended that the UK cuts greenhouse gases emissions by at least 80 percent and that this target should include emissions from aviation and shipping.

The committee also said that to meet emission reduction targets, the UK needs to phase-out using fossil fuels for electricity generation by 2030.

This is a clear rejection of plans for new, unabated, coal power stations, including at Kingsnorth in Kent.

Benedict Southworth, director of the World Development Movement said:
“These recommendations will potentially be a reprieve for the world’s poorest people, whose lives and livelihoods are threatened the most by dangerous climate change.

“This must have an impact on the government’s plans for expansion of the aviation industry and to launch a new generation of unwanted coal power stations. It means ‘no’ to a third runway at Heathrow; and ‘no’ to a new coal power station at Kingsnorth. We must see instead serious investment in renewable energy.

Read more on the WDM website

Read the report from the committee on climate change

In Gordon Brown's cabinet reshuffle this morning, the PM has created a new department of Climate and Energy, with Ed Miliband in charge.

A few reactions:

Greenpeace Executive Director John Sauven:

"For the last ten years this government has dithered on climate change, offering us inspiring rhetoric but little in the way of real action. Bringing energy and climate together at last reflects the urgency of the threat we face from climate change." "Hopefully Ed Miliband will champion efforts to boost renewable energy end energy efficiency, as part of a plan to create the green collar jobs that Britain has so far lost to our European neighbours. The first test of his credibility will be whether he stops the UK's first new coal fired power station in over thirty years at Kingsnorth in Kent."

Julian Oram, head of policy at the World Development Movement:

“The government’s policies thus far on climate change and energy have been at loggerheads. In creating this department, Gordon Brown seems to have recognised that critical decisions on controversial climate issues, such as whether to back a new coal power station at Kingsnorth, are directly linked to its role in exacerbating or averting runaway climate change. This new department must be the department of new clarity on climate change and energy, not contradiction.”

as to the impact on Kingsnorth, and coal in the UK, only time will tell.