It’s all about the taking part
It’s the semi-final stage of one of the world’s most prestigious competitions. One plucky Scot has failed to make it but the Big Two remain and, should they clear their final hurdles, are sure to give us one showpiece of a final.
Unusually for them, the royal family won’t present the trophy this year. In fact, there won’t be a trophy at all and there may not be much point in winning. But the glow of a good deed done will not be dimmed. And there’s always another year (or 12) for those with potential still to fulfil.
E.ON, BP, Scottish Power and Peel Power are the four companies left in the government-sponsored race to make possible carbon capture and storage (CCS) - the underground storage of carbon emissions from coal.
Ministers’ delay has forced BP to drop plans for CCS trials at Peterhead in north-east Scotland but the company is staying the course and may have another site in mind.
This is all very worthy until you remember that eight coal-fired power stations will be built long before Britain has any means of storing the pollution those new plants will cause because Business Secretary John Hutton’s carbon storage competition will not reach its zenith until 2020, Britain’s target date for CCS technology to be ready.
Other countries have banned construction of coal-powered electricity plants until they can stop their emissions going into the atmosphere but Mr Hutton is asking only that new British plants be ‘carbon capture ready’ which is not the same as capturing that carbon.
The UK government has a new grand plan for boosting renewable energy generation but using more clean energy won’t cut emissions if more dirty energy is generated as well, and coal is the dirtiest fuel there is.
It would be typically British to hold a competition in which the taking part was more important than the victory. That will not do. Climate change is too important to dodge that nasty thing called winning and that means ditching coal unless and until it is clean.
Read more about the coal-fired threat here http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/details.asp?id=tcm:9-179457
http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/details.asp?id=tcm:9-185174