Letters
Miliband must end coal emissions
- The Guardian, Wednesday 17 June 2009
The new consultation on the role of coal in Britain’s energy supply, published today by the secretary of state for climate change and energy,Ed Miliband, is critically important for the future of this country and the wider world. In April this year, he declared that “the era of new unabated coal is over”. Given the scale and the urgency of the fight against climate change, this was welcome news, but a policy framework to deliver this outcome has not yet been announced.
In the run up to critical climate change talks in Copenhagen at the end of the year, the government now has the opportunity to provide international leadership. This leadership must begin at home. Coal burning is one of the main causes of climate pollution around the world. The credibility of our climate policies depends on ruling out emissions from new coal power stations.
The UK needs a new energy system, founded on energy efficiency and renewable power, to provide the engine for a world-leading, low-carbon economy. A policy which completely rules out emissions from new coal and sets a deadline for all existing fossil fuel stations to meet similar standards is essential both for climate security and business certainty.
Transforming our energy system will create jobs, reduce our dependence on imported fuels and drastically cut our CO2 emissions. It will also help protect the lives of millions of people, including many of the world’s poorest, from the impacts of climate change; and prevent the irrevocable loss of millions of species of wildlife. In a time of trouble and uncertainty, we trust that we can grasp this unique chance to build a stable, prosperous and equitable future.
Daleep Mukarji
Director, Christian Aid
Andy Atkins
Executive director, Friends of the Earth
John Sauven
Executive director, Greenpeace
Barbara Stocking
Director, Oxfam
Graham Wynne
Chief executive, RSPB
Deborah Doane
Director, World Development Movement
David Nussbaum
Chief executive, Officer, WWF UK
Shell’s “humanitarian” gesture in settling out of court is entirely self-serving (It is time to move on, 11 June). Of course the company wants to “move on”, but unfortunately this isn’t an option for the people of the Niger Delta, a majority of whom depend on the natural environment for their livelihoods. Oil-related pollution, including spills and waste dumping, has caused serious environmental damage to soil, water and air, with far-reaching implications for health and standards of living.
All of this could have been avoided had the oil companies been held properly accountable for decades of adverse impacts on human rights. Corporate charity is not the solution.
Kate Allen
Director, Amnesty International UK
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
