Garston and Halewood Liberal Democrats

No more coal power stations says Lib Dem MEP.

EU Environment Ministers meeting in Paris yesterday (Thursday 3 July) have been told they must set a timetable to end the building of conventional coal power stations.

Addressing the ministers, local Euro-MP Chris Davies, the European Parliament's lead negotiator on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), has warned that the use of coal now comes at a heavy political price.

He cautioned: "Across Europe we are going to see more and more protests every time a coal-fired power station gets approved. Maybe we are just talking about letters of condemnation. Or maybe we are talking about mass civil protest, sabotage of contractors' equipment, years and years of disruption."

The MEP argued that Europe must take a lead in developing CCS if it is to persuade China and India to stop building conventional coal-fired power stations as part of an international agreement to curb global warming.

The French Presidency of the European Commission has given a commitment to prepare a CCS action plan and Mr Davies called on Ministers to ensure that it includes:

• Identification of CCS demonstration projects - In spring last year the EU Heads of Government committed themselves to support 10-12 large scale projects. Sixteen months later not a single one has yet been identified, although the UK is further advanced than any other Member State.
• Establishment of a funding mechanism to bridge the initial gap between CCS innovation and commercial viability. Chris Davies is proposing the granting of tradable carbon allowances for every tonne of CO2 buried deep underground.
• Setting a 2015 date for making CCS a mandatory requirement for new coal power stations. Mr Davies will challenge Ministers to explain if they are prepared to allow conventional coal-fired power stations to continue being opened as late as 2022 or beyond, with each one wiping out the benefits of energy saving and development of renewables.

Below is a copy of the speech given by Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies to EU Environment Ministers today (Thursday 3 July).

Chris Davies MEP

European Parliament Rapporteur

EU Directive on the Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide

The world needs coal; there is no getting away from that fact.

China, India and the USA are said to be planning 850 new coal-fired power stations.

The International Energy Agency says world coal use will increase by 70% over the next 20 years.

It begs the question: "How do we curb carbon emissions if we carry on this way?"

In Europe too we are still hugely dependent on coal.

Britain gets a third of its electricity from coal; Germany, Greece and the Czech Republic 50%, Poland 94%.

We need coal to keep the lights on.

But coal now comes at a high political price.

Across Europe we are going to see more and more protests every time a coal-fired power station gets approved.

Maybe we are just talking about letters of condemnation.

Or maybe we are talking about mass civil protest, sabotage of contractors' equipment, years and years of disruption.

If we have to use coal, we must at least ensure that its emissions do not escape into the atmosphere.

That's why we have to accelerate the development of carbon capture and storage technology.

CCS may only be a stopgap measure, but we need it to buy time to develop better forms of low carbon power generation.

You sometimes hear that burying CO2 deep underground is not safe. But the Norwegian Government has just announced that after ten years of monitoring at Sleipner the CO2 beneath the North Sea is confined securely.

In any case, what are the real risks from CO2? It's inert. We breathe it. We drink it.

Compare it to an explosive gas like methane. Not only do we bury it in underground reservoirs but we pipe it into people's homes, where we actually set light to it! Can you imagine giving permission for that to start now?

We manage risks every day and we cannot afford to have hundreds and thousands more conventional coal fired power stations built across the world. We have to ensure that CCS is at the heart of the international agreement to fight climate change.

It's our task to lead by example, to convince the Chinese and others that we are serious, and to persuade them to make a commitment to curb emissions from coal.

The potential exists for us to make rapid progress.

By December this year we can reach agreement on the framework Directive for the geological storage of CO2.

But we need to go further and that's why I am pleased that the French Presidency has given a commitment to prepare a CCS Action Plan.

In my view it should have three elements.

In spring last year the Council committed itself to supporting 10-12 large scale commercial demonstration projects. Sixteen months later not a single one has been identified. We need now to establish how the technologies will be chosen and the contractors selected.

Second, we need to determine a funding mechanism to bridge the gap between innovation and commercial viability. The Parliament will propose the use of allowances from the surplus within the new entrants' reserve of the Emissions Trading System. These can be traded only when CO2 has actually been sequestrated underground.

It's the best mechanism available. It can be delivered at a European level, it gives investors certainty, and it can be determined almost immediately.

Finally we need to look to making CCS a mandatory requirement.

Don't be put off by those who say the technology is immature. Of course it will get better with time, but General Electric says IGCC pre-combustion systems are ready NOW, and Alstom and Hitachi say post-combustion systems will be commercially available from 2015.

Authorisation from 2015? That means an operating date of 2021 or 2022. We can do that. Our entire experience of introducing environmental regulation shows that it accelerates development and brings down costs.

And can we afford NOT to make CCS mandatory?

Are we really going to allow conventional coal-fired power stations to start operating in 2022, pouring out the CO2 into the atmosphere, wiping out all the benefits gained from energy saving and the construction of renewables?

What message will that send out to China and India, and will our citizens allow it to happen without demanding payment of a high political price?

The French Presidency has the opportunity to drive forward the CCS agenda.

Over the next six months we need to raise our sights and lift our ambitions.

Over the next six months we can really make a difference.