Legal challenge appeal
Campaign group Stop Hinkley has appealed for funds to mount a legal challenge against proposals for a new nuclear power plant. The group, of which Caroline Lucas MP is a patron, is campaigning against the intention to build Hinkley C: the first nuclear power plant in the UK for 20 years.
West Somerset Council decided at the end of July to allow EDF to carry out preparatory work for Hinkley C, despite the fact that the application has met with universal disapproval from local residents.
At the moment there is a pause whilst the council finalises the planning conditions attached to this permission. Once properly ratified, there will be a twelve-week period during which this decision can be challenged.
EDF's application for a sea jetty (as part of the Hinkley C preparations) has gone to a public inquiry to be heard in November.
The group is currently taking legal advice about which of these decisions Stop Hinkley should challenge. With little time to raise funds, the group is asking all supporters to make a donation to their legal challenge appeal.
stophinkley.org
Nuclear papers served
Greenpeace UK served legal papers on the government in August for unlawfully failing to take into account the implications of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in their future planning for the building of new nuclear power stations at sites in Britain.
In a 1611-page legal submission to the High Court, Greenpeace is seeking a Judicial Review of the government's decision not to take into account specialist advice on the implications of the Fukushima disaster on future reactors, which it has an obligation to do. The case made by Greenpeace against the government and the Secretary of State Chris Huhne includes:
* That the Secretary of State unlawfully chose to press ahead with his plans for new nuclear reactors at eight sites in England and Wales (through the Nuclear National Policy Statement) without waiting to take into account relevant considerations arising from the Fukushima disaster.
* That the government appears to have regarded Dr Mike Weightman's Interim Report into the lessons from Fukushima as a 'green light' for proceeding with the Nuclear National Policy Statement even though that the report highlighted areas of serious concern requiring further investigation and that Dr Weightman's review remains ongoing.
* That communications between government officials and nuclear companies seems to show that there was no real intention to properly consider the implications of the disturbing events at Fukushima with an open mind as to what careful analysis of those events and their aftermath might reveal about the safety of nuclear power and the UK's ability to respond to a major nuclear incident.
* That he failed to fully consider all the risks of flooding to a nuclear site despite the evidence of how flooding affected operations at Fukishima. Five of the eight sites identified for new reactors are wholly or partly in areas classified by the Environment Agency as being areas of high flood risk.
* That he failed to wait for analysis of the lessons from Fukushima on how electricity supply, both on and off site, including back up sources and supplies can be guaranteed in the event of an emergency over suitably long timescales in order to provide vital cooling for reactors. The root causes for the Fukushima station blackout and loss of power supply have not yet been properly analysed.
* That the Nuclear National Policy Statement fails to fully consider the lessons from Fukushima on the need for emergency planning for on and off site consequences of a nuclear accident involving a much wider emergency situation with radiation releases over a prolonged time and involving a need to evacuate and re-house large numbers of people. The Japanese emergency planning system demonstrably failed to provide early and sufficient protection for the civilian population in Japan.
greenpeace.org
Low carbon goals at risk
Low carbon goals are at risk as two-thirds of local authorities scale down or abolish climate change programmes, says new research from think tank Green Alliance
In Is localism delivering for climate change? Green Alliance makes the first assessment of low carbon activity by local authorities, Local Enterprise Partnerships and front runner neighbourhood plans under the government's new localism agenda.
The report finds that:
* 65% of local councils surveyed are scaling down or dropping low carbon action: 37 % are deprioritising climate change or state that it was never a priority, and 28 % are narrowing their ambitions to focus on reducing emissions from their estate and ceasing work on wider climate change issues.
* 35% remain firm in their commitment to climate change and believe that action could even increase in the context of localism
* 78% of the 37 Local Enterprise Partnerships have identified low carbon as a deliverable, but resource and expertise constraints create significant barriers to them meeting their ambitions. Unlike the RDAs they replace, LEPs do not have a duty to promote sustainable development
* All of the measures in place to encourage local authority action on climate change are voluntary and will fail to address those local authorities opting out of taking action on climate change
The report makes a number of recommendations for how localism could contribute to national climate change goals including:
* Local authorities must be free to decide how to interpret and deliver against their responsibilities on climate change but they cannot be allowed to opt out of action;
* LEPs must be given responsibility for climate change and account for its impacts as they develop their growth plans;
* Neighbourhood plans should be allowed to set out greater ambitions than the local plan to tackle climate change, reduce emissions and secure low carbon development.
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