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Coal plant plans go up in smoke

E.ON pulls the plug on controversial power station as Oxfam campaigners take action to protect the world's poorest people from the effects of climate change.


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In 2009 the UK Government planned to build five coal fired power stations in the UK. The first, an E.ON plant at Kingsnorth in Kent, would pump 6m tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere every year - that's the same amount as the entire emissions of 25 developing countries!

So Oxfam and its supporters teamed up with Christian Aid, Greenpeace, the Women's Insitute and others to let the Government know there's no room for dirty coal in the UK.

In 2009, as part of the Stop Climate Chaos coalition, you sent more than 5,000 emails to E.ON chief executive Paul Golby, telling him to commit his company to seeking clean solutions for our energy needs.

And you sent even more emails to the Department for Energy, telling the Government that we need to go down a path towards a low carbon future.

Next, thousands of you joined us at Kingsnorth for a peaceful (and legal!) protest - a human chain along the perimeter of the existing power plant. It was "an opportunity for people to demonstrate their opposition in a peaceful way," said Oxfam's Phil Bloomer, "and to represent the swathe of public opposition [to the plans]."

Video: Thousands take part in the 'Mili-band' and stand-up to climate change

Video: Thousands take part in the 'Mili-band' and stand-up to climate change

And it worked. In October 2009, thanks to your campaigning, E.ON shelved their plans for three years - which amounts to them pulling the plug on the controversial new power station. The plant could have forced 20,000 more people from their homes to become refugees, and 50,000 more people to go hungry because of drought and lower crop yields (World Development Movement, 2009) - so your campaigning has truly changed thousands of lives.

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