For the second time this month, protesters have focused on major building contractor BAM Nuttall due to its potential role in building the controversial Kingsnorth coal power station. Protesters have climbed the company’s flagpole and raised a flag reading “no new coal”. People have attempted to enter the building, asking to speak to Chief Executive Martin J. Rogers in order to give him a letter about the disastrous implications of building more coal-fired power stations.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
29 June 2009, 11:30
For more information, interviews and photographs [1] contact Thames Valley Climate Action on 07912 614 541 or oxford@climatecamp.org.uk
CLIMATE CAMPAIGNERS TARGET COAL POWER CONSTRUCTION FIRM
Protesters focus on major building contractor BAM Nuttall due to potential role in controversial Kingsnorth coal power station
[Photo and filming opportunity at: BAM Nuttall Head Office, St. James House, Knoll Road, Camberly, Surrey, GU15 3XW]
For the second time this month, campaigners have targeted offices of Surrey-based building firm BAM Nuttall. Protesters have climbed the company’s flagpole and raised a flag reading “no new coal”. Seven people attempted to enter the building, asking to speak to Chief Executive Martin J. Rogers in order to give him a letter about the disastrous implications of building more coal-fired power stations.
The campaigners from Thames Valley Climate Action [2], are targeting BAM because the company is bidding for the contract to build a new coal power station at Kingsnorth in Kent, for the energy giant E.ON [3]. This would be the first new UK coal power station for 30 years, and would produce about 7 millions tonnes of CO2 per year, equivalent to the entire emissions of a country like Ghana [4]. According to a new report from Kofi Annan’s Global Humanitarian Forum, climate change is already killing 300,000 people per year, and will get much worse unless we urgently reduce our CO2 emissions [5].
One of the protesters, Mike Holdman, said: “We are here for the second time this month to demand that BAM Nuttall pulls out of building coal power stations. While we praise BAM’s introduction of low energy lighting and improved heating controls, these initiatives are a drop in the ocean compared with the emissions the firm will cause by building new coal power stations.”
The Government and E.ON are claiming that a new Kingsnorth power station would eventually include “carbon capture and storage” (CCS) technology, to catch 25% of its emissions and store them underground [6]. However, the campaigners inside BAM Nuttall point out that this is unproven technology that is still being tested, and won’t be available until at least 2020 [7]. Climate scientists say we need to make sharp carbon cuts long before that date [8]. Even if CCS is one day installed, and works as planned, the plant would still produce more CO2 than a gas power station [9].
The Government’s other favoured justification for building new coal power stations—that the emissions would be included in the EU’s “carbon trading” scheme—has been widely and heavily criticized. Critics say that this scheme is a complex and unworkable distraction from the real climate change solutions, that it isn’t reducing emissions, and it essentially hands control of the climate over to the same bankers, brokers and private traders responsible for the global financial crash [11].
Last week NASA’s top climate scientist, James Hansen, was arrested for taking action against new coal. Hansen said, “It seems to me that young people, especially, should be doing whatever is necessary to block construction of dirty coal-fired power plants.” Even Al Gore said in 2007, “I can’t understand why there aren’t rings of young people blocking bulldozers and preventing them from constructing coal-fired power stations.” One of today’s protesters, Anna Samuels, said: “You have a top politician and a top scientist calling for direct action on coal, as we are doing here today. Gore and Hansen must recognise that non-violent direct action has been an important catalyst in nearly every major social change movement in history, from woman’s suffrage to civil rights. We are here today to help catalyze the much-needed shift from coal to a low-carbon economy.”
Louise Smith said: “We need to think about the long-term picture. The Stern Review has shown that coal is not a cost-effective energy source when you factor in the damages that it will cause through future climate change. Climate scientists around the world, from Oxford University’s Myles Allen to NASA’s James Hansen, are denouncing coal. We ask BAM Nuttall to do the same, and stop building new coal power stations.”
—ENDS—
Notes to Editors:
[1] Photographs of our protest at BAM earlier this month are available at http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/oxford/2009/06/431779.html
[2] TVCA is part of the Camp for Climate Action network, which set up a week-long protest camp at Kingsnorth in August 2008—see www.climatecamp.org.uk. Today’s action is part of a national campaign, supported by the Camp for Climate Action, called the E.ON Face Off—see www.e-onf-off.org.uk. Previous actions have included the occupation of E.ON’s UK head office by protesters dressed as Santa Claus, and actions at E.ON stalls at University recruitment events, which led to the company abandoning its graduate recruitment drive.
[3] BAM Nuttall is a construction and civil engineering firm owned by the Royal BAM Group
[4] Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre: http://cdiac.ornl.gov/
[5] Global Humanitarian Forum: http://ghf-geneva.org/
[6] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8014295.stm
[7] http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmental/georgemonbiot/2009/apr/23/carbon-capture-and-storage-coal
[8] http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/publications/briefing_notes/bn17.pdf
[9] Generating electricity from coal produces about twice as much CO2 per KWh than generation from gas. Therefore a 25%reduction would leave coal about 1.5 times as polluting as gas.
[10] See for example: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article5257602.ece, http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227046.200-carbon-trading-wont-stop-climate-change.html and http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/cif-green/2009/may/28/carbon-trading
[11] http://carbontradewatch.org
11:30
UPDATE: Five protesters entered the building and were later ejected. They are now being searched under Section 1 of the 2003 Criminal Justice Act. No arrests thus far.
Thames Valley Climate Action
oxford@climatecamp.org.uk
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk
Activists from Plane Stupid and Action Against Agrofuels protested at Heathrow Terminal 3 outside the Virgin check-in about the proposed use of biofuels for aviation. Monday 22nd June was chosen as it was the 25th anniversary of Virgin Atlantic who plan to meet 5% of their 2015 aviation fuel quota from biofuels. Most of this will inevitably come from palm oil.
22 June 2009
18 June 2009
It was a glorious morning as 5 separate groups made their way towards Aldermaston. At 6.30a.m. the Muriel Lesters arrived at North Gate to find it had not been opened yet for the park and ride coaches so they further locked it with their own chains and some super-glue and arranged themselves as comfortably as possible in their lock-ons and hung their peace banners.
At 7a.m. women from the Aldermaston Women’s Peace Camp pushed their heavy lock-ons into place at Home Office Gate, and three women locked on, slowing traffic down whilst the East Anglian group drove two cars into Tadley Gate completely blocking it. The two cars had been carefully provided with lock-on tubes fixed to the back-seat floors so that when the cars were positioned the supporters in the front could get out fast and the two in the back seat just opened their doors and then sat in the road and put their arms in the tube. Thus 2 people locked-on to each car and the rest of the supporting group spray painted CND signs on the cars and hung banners saying ’Nuclear Weapons are State Terrorism’.
Meanwhile, two intrepid cyclists managed to padlock shut both sets of gates at the Main Gate and then rush off without getting arrested in order to support the other groups. They were soon joined by 2 other cyclists and throughout the morning not only gave good support but also got lots of ideas about how to do some bicycle blockades another time. They put up their banner that said ’Bikes Block Bombs – No Trident’ at the Tadley Gate.
At 7.30a.m. two combined TP affinity groups calling themselves the ’Birthday Group’ (it was Alison’s 60th birthday) manoeuvred a caravan into the Boilerhouse Gate stopping the line of traffic that had been directed around to that gate. There were 4 locked to each corner of the caravan sitting on the ground with their arms in concrete lock-ons that were fixed inside each corner of the caravan. One other blockader locked himself to the side of the caravan. Then the banner went up saying ’No Trident Replacement’ and the birthday cake came around.
One of the companies bidding for the contract to construct a new coal fired power station at Kingsnorth has been targeted by climate campaigners. Three people have locked on inside and two are up on a ledge outside having dropped a banner.
Hello friends,