Welsh political party leaders told to resist rush for coal

6 Oct 2008

Calls to expand the coal industry in Wales must be rejected. This is the appeal made by a leading environmental organisation in a letter this week to the leaders of the four main political parties in Wales.

According to Friends of the Earth Cymru, emissions from burning coal are the main single cause of climate change and have to be reduced as quickly as possible. Coal can have a future once technologies to capture and bury carbon become commercially available, but this is not expected before 2020.

Friends of the Earth Cymru director, Gordon James, said:

"As we now face such an immense threat from climate change, we are firmly opposed to an increase in the use of coal until carbon capture and storage has been developed on a commercial basis.

"We are writing to the leaders of the political parties in Wales, urging them to resist calls for a revival of coal in Wales until the technology is in place to deal with the climate-changing carbon emissions. This is very unlikely to be before 2020.

"Coal is the largest single cause of climate change, responsible for half the carbon dioxide (CO2) humans have ever emitted and the main reason why Britain has emitted more CO2 per head of population than any other country. Wales, of course, has contributed more than its fair share.

"Aberthaw power station, which burns much of the Welsh coal produced, is the single largest emitter of CO2 in the country. Its emissions in 2006 of over seven million tonnes could rise to eleven million tonnes as output is predicted to increase in the future.

"Some in Wales are claiming that coal can now be burned 'cleanly' and efficiently. This is, for now, a false promise - gains in efficiency have been small, and burning more coal would only push our emissions of carbon dioxide to ever more dangerous levels.

"Any future for coal as a fuel hinges on our ability to capture and store underground the carbon dioxide it emits. But experts predict that this new carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is not likely to be commercially available until 2020. Until then, we must not build new coal-fired power stations, and the promise of CCS sometime in the future certainly cannot be used as an excuse to build new coal power stations today.

"As over 70 per cent of the coal used in the UK today is imported, there is a possibility that Welsh coal could replace some of these imports. But more Welsh coal cannot be allowed to mean more Welsh landscapes hideously disfigured by opencast mines, and all the impact that can mean on communities, people's health and the environment."

Friends of the Earth Cymru point out that one of the world's top climate scientists, Professor James Hansen of NASA, has written to Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling on him to reject proposals to build coal-fired power stations[1]. Professor Hansen stated that "an agreement to phase out coal, except where the carbon dioxide is captured, is 80 per cent of the solution to the climate change crises".

On Tuesday 7th the National Assembly's Sustainable Energy Group will discuss the future of coal following presentations from three experts.

NOTES

1. See: http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/20071219_DearPrimeMinister.pdf