UKCCSC News 8 October 2008

Hi Folks,

Sorry to fill your in-box with short e-mails, but yesterdays epic legislation session in the EU environment committee has been swamped in the press by banks collapsing and economies melting.

The story today was described by Reuters as a ‘shock move’, a term not used lightly by the normally rather staid news agency. The Sun on the other hand, probably doesn’t know enough single-syllable exclamations to describe the importance of this:

“European Parliament committee supports the mandatory use of carbon capture and storage technology from 2015” EuropeanVoice.com (7 Oct)

“New coal-fired power stations must have technology to capture and store their carbon emissions from 2015, the European Parliament’s environment committee voted today.”

Sadly the technical reporting left something to be desired:

“… an emissions limit of 500 watts of CO₂ per kilowatt hour from 2015”

https://www.europeanvoice.com/article/2008/10/ccs-rollout-secures-backing/62582.aspx

Reuters can afford a more science-literate reporter:

“The European Parliament’s influential environment committee approved a cap of 500 grammes carbon dioxide (CO₂) per kilowatt hour on power plants larger than 300 megawatts.” (Reuters 7 Oct)

And a word of caution:

“The vote is not the last word, laying the Parliament position for negotiations with EU leaders ahead of a final agreement seen later this year or early in 2009.”

Hasta la vista

Mark