South-West Greens welcome the news that the European Investment Bank will stop financing most coal-fired power-stations as a positive step to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and address the issue of climate change. However, power-stations can still be funded if they emit less than 500 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour, which would mean combination with either biomass burning or combined heat and power.
Councillor Molly Scott Cato, the South West Green Party’s lead candidate for the 2014 European Elections, said:
‘This is a positive step, although many may be surprised to learn that the EU’s main lending arm has been bankrolling dirty power-stations until now. This change in financing rules needs to be only the first step towards the phasing out of support for outmoded fossil-fuel technology. We also need the European Union to go further by greening its convergence funding so that it can no longer be used to support new roads and airports.’
In the evidence she recently submitted to the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry into Green Finance, Professor Scott Cato, who is a green economist, called for green investments to be judged by an Energy Return on Energy Invested criterion rather than on the basis of financial return.
Helen Woodall
