Greenpeace has produced a report damning what it calls the UK's hypocrisy in its attitude to climate change measures despite its being a world leader in reducing climate-changing greenhouse gases. The UK, it says, is exporting enough dirty energy technology to developing countries to cancel out half its emission reductions under the Kyoto Protocol.
The report, Exporting pollution: double standards in UK energy exports, claims that since 1997 the UK's Export Credit Guarantee Dept has funded coal-fired power stations in developing countries that total 13.3 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year. At the same time the prime minister Tony Blair has promised to reduce the country's emissions by 26.5 million tonnes of carbon. Meanwhile the UK's export credit agency has not funded a single renewable energy project.
"This is typical of the hypocrisy of rich Northern countries that boast about doing the right thing for the environment," said Red Constantino, of Greenpeace South East Asia. "They keep the clean technology for their own use, but they still want to make money out of dumping their dirty, old-fashioned power plants on the South. Just because there is a growing demand for energy in developing countries it doesn't mean they should have to accept dangerous, out-dated polluting power." Greenpeace admits, however, that customers sometimes choose coal technology themselves, without reference to outside interests.
While the UK continues to back the export of 'dirty' coal plant to poorer nations, it does not build them. The last UK coal-powered station was constructed in 1972. Meamwhile the export credit agency has backed funding for coal-fired power stations in the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, India, China, Zimbabwe, Turkey, South Africa and Indonesia.
In a case highlighted in the report local communities in the Prachuab Khiri Khan region of Thailand are fighting to defeat the proposed construction of a coal power plant in an area of outstanding beauty. Local groups want renewable energy solutions, but a British company has already approached the ECGD in the hope of securing support for a coal-burning plant.
The report is part of Greenpeace's 'Countdown to Johannesburg' campaign leading up to the Second Earth Summit. It wants governments to take the lead in global sustainability, and 'stop abdicating their responsibilities ... for protection of the planet'.
Linkedin
