E.On's good words but not good deeds

1.27.32pm GMT Sat 5th Jan 2008

Today is FA Cup 3rd round day. The FA Cup is now sponsored by energy firm E.On. E.On have been advertising using the slogan 'carbon free football' and are campaigning for fans to car-share and the such like, all very good, however whilst promoting this they are also planning to build the first new coal-fired power station in more than 30 years.

Greenpeace's executive director, John Sauven, said: "The government must not be taken in by the myth of clean coal technology. Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel on the planet, and even the chancellor admits that so-called carbon capture technology may never work. With a decade left before our emissions must peak we just can't take that kind of gamble with the planet, and we certainly can't tell the Chinese and Indians not to build a new generation of coal-fired power stations if we do the same here."

Friends of the Earth's energy campaigner, Robin Webster, said he was disappointed the council had given its backing to "an outdated and dirty" power station "If built, Kingsnorth power station will undermine the government's commitment to meet European targets for producing 20% of energy from renewables by 2020," he said. "If it is serious about tackling climate change the government must throw out this proposal and promote investment in clean and green alternatives."

Keith Allott, the head of climate change at WWF, said: "A promise of carbon capture and storage readiness simply isn't good enough - the station could still claim to be 'CCS ready' in 30 years' time, while merrily belching out carbon in the interim. If the power industry believes that CCS has a role, it needs to put its money where its mouth is and determine now whether the technology really can play a safe, environmentally sound role in the production of low-carbon energy."