Houdini act now needed to escape from high-carbon lock-in

This Monday in a shortened debate in the last hours of Parliament MPs voted through the Government's National Policy Statements (NPSs), which will enable new power projects such as nuclear and gas power stations and mega-incinerators to be fast tracked through the planning system.

But these NPSs ignore UK climate change targets and put a high-carbon padlock on the UK economy. So what can be done to unpick them?

The new NPSs are designed to prevent discussion of contentious issues -such as whether a development is needed or its impact on climate change. One of the first projects under this new regime will be a huge incinerator proposed for Merthyr Tydfil in Wales by American corporation Covanta, which faces fierce local opposition from people concerned about traffic and air pollution.

So far over 10,000 have registered their objection to the incinerator being built.

They've produced a video too:

The Merthyr incinerator will be bigger than the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and sited next to the UK's largest open cast coal mine and a huge landfill site.

It could take all the waste from Wales - including material that could be recycled such as paper, plastic, and clothes. And it will also produce more carbon dioxide emissions per unit of energy than a gas-fired power station - although the NPS laughably counts the incinerator as a "renewable source of energy".

Now the NPSs are adopted, it will be much harder for the people of Merthyr to have their voice heard - and many of their concerns will be dismissed as irrelevant.

On climate change though there is one opportunity - the Minister Charles Hendry said in the House of Commons debate that if:

disbenefits were considered to outweigh the benefits, consent would not need to be given. If it were felt that consent was being given to too much higher-carbon generation capacity and therefore that environmental issues—low-carbon issues—were seen to be more important, that would be a material factor to be taken into account.

Ministers must look again at the huge volumes of new fossil-fuel power stations being built or already approved - the UK can't afford to wrap yet another high-carbon chain around its neck.