Party leaders urged to plan coal phase-out

Leading environmental, development, and health organisations have warned Britain’s political leaders that coal pollution risks derailing the UK’s climate targets unless they agree on a clear deadline and concrete measures to phase out dirty coal by the early 2020s.??The call comes as a YouGov survey published today shows a majority of British people (56%) would back a move to push unabated coal off the system by the early 2020s to tackle climate change, with levels of support consistent across voters from the three main parties, including Ukip. Only 24% say they oppose the move. ??Earlier this month David Cameron, Nick Clegg, and Ed Miliband signed a joint statement which committed them to phase out coal pollution but stopped short of agreeing a deadline or policies to make it happen.??In a letter addressed to the leaders of the UK’s main political parties, a broad alliance of NGOs including, Greenpeace UK, Medact, Oxfam, RSPB and the Women’s Institute, have urged the three party leaders to set out how they plan to achieve a phase out of unabated coal in their manifestos.??The groups say they are ‘concerned that in the absence of a concrete and credible plan to take unabated coal power stations off the system, they will continue to emit carbon throughout the 2020s and beyond, threatening our efforts to tackle climate change and air pollution.’??A recent study by Imperial College London has shown that, without additional measures to tackle coal use, up to 9 Gigawatt of unabated coal power - equivalent to around half the existing fleet - could still be on the system in 2030.??According to the government’s own climate adviser, if the UK is to decarbonise in the most cost effective way, ‘there can be no role for conventional coal generation in the UK beyond the early 2020s’.??Greenpeace UK energy campaigner Lawrence Carter said:??“The joint pledge to end dirty coal was a great step forward, but for it to have a real impact it needs a clear deadline and concrete policies to make it happen. Our political leaders should not be under the illusion that coal pollution will simply go away by itself, because research shows this won’t be the case. With new subsidies for coal plants and a freeze on the carbon emission tax, ministers have thrown old coal a lifeline. If the UK is to meet its climate targets, we need to reverse these wrong-headed policies and consign coal pollution to the dustbin of history by the early 2020s.” ??Jenny Banks, Energy and Climate Change specialist at WWF UK said:??“The UK’s remaining coal power stations average around 45 years old and are astonishingly inefficient. If even one of these polluting plants is still running in 2030 it could emit more than half the target carbon emissions for that year but only supply a paltry 3% of electricity demand. Getting rid of unabated coal is the most effective single action the UK can take to tackle climate change. We are calling on the next Government to set a date in the early 2020s for coal plants to close and publish policies to deliver this commitment”??Oxfam’s Policy Lead for Climate Justice Julie-Anne Richards said: ??“Climate change is already forcing the world’s poorest people into a life of hunger and coal-fired plants are the single biggest contributor to a warming world. The UK must draw up a concrete plan to phase out coal so it can lead the world closer to safer futures for us all.”??Air pollution from the UK’s coal plants causes an estimated 1,600 early deaths per year and costs the taxpayer up to £3.1bn per year in health impacts, according to public health experts. ??A recent report by the Global Commission on the Economy and the Climate, jointly initiated by the UK government, called on affluent countries to “accelerate early retirement of existing unabated capacity”.