Court Deals Major Blow to UK Coal fired power plan
Court Deals Major Blow to UK Coal fired power
plans
Verdict marks a 'tipping point' for climate change movement
London, United Kingdom, 10 September 2008 -
British Government Ministers
suffered a blow to their
energy plans today as six Greenpeace UK
volunteers were
acquitted of criminal damage by a Crown Court jury in a
case that centred on the contribution made to climate
change by burning
coal.
The charges arose after the
six attempted to shut down the Kingsnorth
coal-fired
power station in Kent last year by scaling the chimney and
painting the Prime Minister's name down the side. The
defendants pleaded
'not guilty' and relied in court on
the defence of 'lawful excuse' -
claiming they shut the
power station in order to defend property of a
greater
value from the global impact of climate change.
Today's
acquittal is a potent challenge to the UK Government's plans
for
new coal-fired power stations from jurors
representing ordinary people
in Britain who, after
hearing the evidence, supported the right to take
direct
action in order to protect the climate. It stands as an
example
to governments everywhere and an inspiration to
people world-wide that
they can and should take a stand
against coal fired power stations in
defence of the
climate.
Over five days of evidence, Maidstone Crown Court
heard testimony from
the world's leading climate
scientist, an Inuit leader from Greenland
and the
environment adviser to the UK Conservative party leader. The
jury was told that Kingsnorth emits 20,000 tonnes of CO2
every day - the
same amount as the 30 least-polluting
countries in the world combined -
and that the
Government has advanced plans to build a new coal-fired
power station next to the existing site on the Hoo
Peninsula in Kent.
The 'not guilty' verdict means the jury
believed that shutting down the
coal plant was justified
in the context of the damage to property caused
around
the world by CO2 emissions from Kingsnorth.
"This verdict
marks a tipping point for the climate change movement,"
said Ben Stewart, one of the defendants. "If jurors from
the heart of
Middle England say it's legitimate for a
direct action group to shut
down a coal-fired power
station because of the harm it does to our
planet, then
where does that leave government energy policy? We have the
clean technologies at hand to power our economy, it's
time we turned to
them instead of coal."
Another
defendant, Emily Hall, said after her acquittal: "This is a
huge
blow for Prime Minster Gordon Brown and his plans
for new coal-fired
power stations. It wasn't only us in
the dock, it was coal-fired power
generation as well.
After this verdict, the only people left in Britain
who
think new coal is a good idea are Business Secretary John
Hutton and
the Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks. It's time
the Prime Minister stepped
in, showed some leadership,
and embraced a clean energy future for
Britain."
The
defence called as a witness Professor James Hansen, a NASA
director
who advises Al Gore and is known as the world's
leading climate
scientist. Hansen told the court that
more than a million species would
be made extinct
because of climate change and calculated that Kingsnorth
would proportionally be responsible for 400 of these.
"We are in grave
peril," he told the jury. He said he
agreed with Al Gore's statement
that more people should
be chaining themselves to coal-powered stations.
"Somebody needs to step forward and say there has to be
a moratorium,
draw a line in the sand and say no more
coal-fired power stations."
Asked by Michael Wolkind QC,
for the defence, if carbon dioxide damages
property,
Hansen replied, "Yes, it does." Asked if stopping emissions
of
any amount of it therefore protects property, he
replied, "Yes it does,
in proportion to the amount." He
added that he thought there was an
immediate need to
protect property at risk from climate change.
Conservative
Party green adviser Zac Goldsmith also gave evidence for
the defence. He told the court: "By building a
coal-power plant in this
country, it makes it very much
harder in exerting pressure on countries
like China and
India. I think that's something that is felt in
Government circles." He later told the jury: "Legalities
aside, I
suppose if a crime is intended to prevent much
larger crimes, I think
then a lot of people would
consider that as justified and a good thing."
Some of the
property the court was told was in immediate need of
protection included parts of Kent at risk from rising
sea levels, the
Pacific island state of Tuvalu and areas
of Greenland. The defendants
also cited the Arctic ice
sheet, China's Yellow River region, the Larsen
B ice
shelf in Antarctica, coastal areas of Bangladesh and the
city of
New Orleans.
The acquittal is the first case
where preventing property damage from
climate change has
been used as part of a 'lawful excuse' defence in
court.
The defence has previously been successfully deployed by
defendants accused of damaging a military jet bound for
Indonesia to be
used in the war against East Timor
before independence.
The defendants had intended to paint
'GORDON BIN IT' down the side of
the chimney but were
served a High Court injunction by police
helicopter,
meaning they only got as far as painting the Prime
Minister's first name.
Last month a new report by
Poyry - Europe's leading energy consultants -
concluded
that Britain could meet its energy demands without new coal.
If the UK hit its existing efficiency and renewables
targets it would
negate the case for a new coal-fired
power station at Kingsnorth and at
least seven other
proposed sites. An earlier Poyry report, published in
June, found at least 16 gigawatts of untapped potential
from 'Combined
Heat and Power' plants - super-efficient
power stations that are popular
in Scandinavia but
little used in the
UK.
ends