The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) welcomes Lord Turner’s first report as Chair of the Committee on Climate Change published today (Monday 1 December). The Committee recommends that wind power contribute over 20% of electricity generation by 2020, having concluded that other renewable technologies, such as wave or tidal power, are not sufficiently developed to deliver on time. Andrea Davies, senior campaigner for CPRE, said:
‘We urge the Government to place greater emphasis on offshore wind and use the planning system to steer the location of onshore wind in order to avoid damaging impacts on valued landscapes.’ The Committee also recommends that planned demonstration projects for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) should go ahead as soon as possible, which might be interpreted as a green light for a Kingsnorth coal power plant in Kent. Andrea Davies commented: ‘Tough CO2 emission performance standards should be in place before any new coal power plants, such as Kingsnorth, are built – otherwise, the Government risks pulling the carpet from under its own feet in seeking to meet its goals on climate change.’ Finally, the Committee’s recommendations on aviation emissions mean that a radical rewrite of Government policies is required: Andrea Davies said: ‘Specifically, we want Ministers to refuse planning permission for the third runway at Heathrow and the second runway at Stansted and reverse the decision to allow 10 million more passengers a year at Stansted.’

 
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01 December 2008
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