Carbon capture and storage: A victory for green thinking

Editorial
The Observer, Sunday 26 April 2009

Last week, the government gave a rare demonstration of environmental leadership. It pledged that no new coal-fired power stations will be built in Britain unless they are fitted with technology to capture and store the carbon emissions. The announcement lacked detail about funding this technology, but the move is welcome none the less. In recent years, ministers have been happy to talk about reducing the nation's carbon emissions, but vague about how to achieve this.
On this occasion - by promoting devices that will take carbon dioxide from power plants and pump it deep into old North Sea oil fields - they have demonstrated a real appreciation of how serious we have to be in our fight against global warming. Carbon capture and storage is a technology with the potential to make a major difference in the fight against climate change.
It shows that power has shifted in government. Only last year, the cabinet was poised to approve new coal-powered generating plants that would have been able to operate without these devices and that would have pumped millions of tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere. That power shift favours Ed Miliband, who has convinced cabinet and civil servants that this cause is a vital one. Green groups who risked jail to champion a once unfashionable cause have scored a major victory. We're all a little safer because of it.