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NUCLEAR IS NOT ANSWER TO CLIMATE CHANGE: FOE slams Trade and Industry Committee's support for nuclear power
9 June 1998
Friends of the Earth today slammed the House of Commons Trade and Industry Committee for concluding in its inquiry into Energy Policy that more nuclear power plants may have to be built to tackle climate change. A new FOE report, published tomorrow, demonstrates that the Government can meet its commitment to cut carbon dioxide levels by 20 per cent by 2010 (based on 1990 levels) - and indeed can make even greater cuts - without needing new nuclear capacity, and without any net extra cost to the tax payer.Charles Secrett, Executive Director of Friends of the Earth said:
“Nuclear power is the least cost-effective option for reducing CO2 emissions and is not necessary in order to tackle the threat of climate change. Our new research, to be published tomorrow, shows that we can meet the Government's target of a 20% cut in CO2 emissions by phasing out Magnox and investing in energy efficiency, renewables, combined heat and power and public transport.
It is astonishing that this committee of MPs should suggest that the UK may have to build new nuclear power stations on environmental grounds - they are dangerous, uneconomic and create deadly nuclear waste that no-one knows what to do with. It's time that the UK abandoned the nuclear mistakes of yesteryear and invested in safe and sustainable solutions for dealing with the energy demands of the next millennium.”
Friends of the Earth also criticised the Committee's support for opencast coal mining, which is displacing deep-mining jobs and threatens to destroy some of Britain's outstanding wildlife sites and landscapes. In opposition Labour promised to introduce a presumption against opencast, but the Committee has wrongly argued for sustaining it on the basis of job creation. Opencast creates few jobs among the local community and can deter investment and economic regeneration.
However, Friends of the Earth has welcomed the Committee's criticism of the Government's unacceptable delay in resolving the coal crisis and the Committee's support for radical change in energy policy to meet environmental objectives. The Committee also endorsed an increase in Government support for renewable energy, energy efficiency and combined heat and power.
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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust
Last modified: Jul 2008
