Coal

Coal is the most carbon-intensive of all fossil fuels. Being nearly pure carbon, it releases nearly pure carbon dioxide when burned. How we produce power has the biggest impact on the climate of any sector, and coal is the worst offender.

While the world around us is thrown into crisis by global warming, coal-fuelled power stations are pumping more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than ever before. The Government has effectively subsidised coal, making the most polluting source of energy cheaper to burn than less polluting natural gas. The use of coal in power stations has risen by 10 per cent under New Labour, and CO2 emissions in the UK are higher than ever before - and still rising. By supporting new coal mines like Ffos-y-Fran the Government is sending a clear signal that they are not committed to addressing climate change substantially.

“The single greatest threat to the climate comes from burning coal. Coal-fired generation is historically responsible for most of the CO2 in the air today - responsible for about half of all carbon dioxide emissions globally”

James Hansen, director of the NASA GISS, letter to Gordon Brown, 2007

That the UK is still seriously considering relying on coal demonstrates the Government’s lack of commitment to addressing climate change seriously. Coal-powered generation looks even less like a good idea when you consider that two thirds of the energy going into a coal-fired power station never even makes it to our homes. It’s lost up the cooling towers and along the transmission lines - as waste heat before we even turn the kettle on.

Because coal is cheaper to burn than natural gas, energy companies are planning new coal power stations which could be pumping out carbon dioxide for the next fifty years, making it almost impossible for us to stop catastrophic climate change. One of the world’s most pre-eminent climate scientists, James Hansen from NASA, was so shocked by the UK’s plans for new coal that he wrote to the Prime Minister – stating that he had “the future of the world in his hands.”

Ffos-y-Fran and mines like it in the UK will help supply a new generation of coal fired power plants. Kingsnorth in Kent is the first of these proposed new plants, and is planned to start production by 2012. It will be followed by at least seven others. None will be able to capture emissions from burning the coal – carbon capture and storage technology is still in its infancy and may not be ready for years, if at all.

This just goes to show how badly the government is lacking a coherent approach to tackling energy security and climate change. There is a solution – studies have shown that the UK could meet a much larger proportion of its energy needs from renewable, doing away with the need for new coal fired power stations, generating tens of thousands of jobs and growth for the UK economy, and allowing us to take a lead on the global climate stage.