Greenpeace and Didcot Power Plant

In advance of the 4th November national Climate Change march in London, Thirty Greenpeace volunteers halted the conveyor belts at the coal-fired Didcot power station today.

Most British power stations waste two-thirds of the energy they generate in the form of heat escaping up their cooling towers. By locating smaller generators close to where energy is used, the heat created in power stations can be captured and used to heat our homes. Woking Council has reduced its carbon footprint by 77% by employing decentralised technologies.

Greenpeace campaigns director Blake Lee-Harwood, who is part of the team that shut Didcot's conveyor belt, said: "Power stations like this are energy dinosaurs. This one power station emits over six millions tonnes of CO2 a year, that's more than the 29 lowest polluting countries put together. And, shockingly, Didcot could halve its emissions overnight if it switched from burning coal to gas."

Under Tony Blair: The use of coal for electricity generation has gone up from 47.3 to 52.5 million tonnes a year; Between the second quarters of 2005 and 2006 coal-burn for electricity rose by 10.5%.