Gore backs direct action against dirty coal plants

Former US vice president and environmental campaigner Al Gore has claimed that it might be time for young people to take direct action against new coal- fired power stations through acts of civil disobedience.

According to Reuters, Gore made the statement at a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City and called on action to be taken to stop the construction of coal power stations that do not store carbon.

"If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now – and not done – I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration," Reuters reported him as saying.

Gore's statement echoes similar claims from MPs in the UK recently. Speaking at the party's conference earlier this month, Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davis, spokesman for environment and public health, claimed that all politicians should be prepared to take direct action for issues they believe in.

"If we are on the losing side of something we feel passionate about, and we are prepared to take the risk and consequences of a judgment against us then I don't have a problem taking part in an act of non-violent direct action," he said. "If Gordon Brown decides to go ahead with Kingsnorth without carbon capture storage systems, then I will sit down in front of the bulldozers with other protestors and take what comes to me."

Davies made the comments in response to claims made by former director of Friends of the Earth, Jonathon Porritt, that the decision this month to acquit protestors at the Kingsnorth power plant in Kent was a sign that power companies could find themselves eventually viewed in the same way as tobacco companies for damaging public health.

Six Greenpeace activists were charged with causing £30,000 of damage at Kingsnorth last October. But earlier this month the six were acquitted of criminal damage with the jury agreeing by a 10-2 majority that "emergency action " could be used to stop damage to the environment.

Davies is reportedly taking the lead on the development of carbon capture and storage technology in the European Parliament, and is set to meet with the Environment Committee to vote on an amendment which, if successful, he claimed "will save HM Treasury hundreds of millions of pounds necessary to support carbon sequestration projects".

According to a statement from the Liberal Democrats, governments across Europe pledged to support construction of 12 commercial CCS demonstration plants by 2015, but none have yet been named to date.

The UK government is currently seeking bids for a first project but is limiting its promise of financial support to one of 300MW generating capacity, far less than that planned at Kingsnorth, the party claims.

According to figures from the International Energy Agency, worldwide use of the fossil fuel will increase by 70 per cent over the next 20 years.