The Government looks set to fail in its first major domestic test over its declared commitment to the environment ahead of an upcoming speech by the Prime Minister.
A recent PR charm offensive by the energy company EDF extolling the green credentials of its proposals to build the Sizewell C nuclear reactor seems to be swaying government opinion, despite the fact that the project may irreversibly damage one of the UK’s most important and well protected wildlife sites. It is rumoured that the Prime Minister will announce the importance of future nuclear energy development in his upcoming 10-point speech on the environment.
The RSPB’s Chief Executive, Beccy Speight, said: “The Government has committed to protect 30% of the UK’s land by 2030 to boost biodiversity, so allowing the destruction of one of the most nature rich places we already have in the UK would be a crazy decision. The Prime Minister must not let EDF pull the wool over his eyes regarding what a damaging project this would be.
If EDF were to be given permission to build a brand-new twin nuclear reactor slap bang on the border of a globally important wildlife haven, then we believe that contrary to the ambition set out by this Government, nowhere in the UK is sacred anymore. The Government has stated that we are in an ecological emergency as well as a climate emergency and it simply cannot afford to waste taxpayer’s money destroying flagship reserves which mean so much to wildlife and people.”
The RSPB has waited for over a decade for EDF Energy to show them evidence that RSPB Minsmere won’t be irrevocably damaged if the energy giant builds the UK’s latest white elephant: Sizewell C. That evidence has never materialised and EDF continue to try and paint the development as environmentally friendly despite evidence to the contrary.
Home to a whopping 6000 species, Minsmere is widely acknowledged as one of Europe’s most important wildlife sites and has legal protection at both the national and international level. Protected animals that call the Suffolk coast home like otters, water voles, marsh harriers, bats and many more could all fall victim to this huge infrastructure project and legally protected land, Sizewell Marshes SSSI, could be built directly on. The concerns extend to marine life too with proposals suggesting waters off the local beaches could warm and that toxic chemicals could be pumped into the sea along with worrying numbers of dead fish.
Beccy Speight continued: “We could be witnessing the horrors of HS2 all over again, wasting tax payers’ money on destroying irreplaceable homes for nature. If Sizewell C was to be built, it should come as no surprise to us all that we would once again be witnessing chainsaws and diggers decimating precious habitats which are not only important to wildlife, but to people’s health and wellbeing too. For this to happen as we attempt to recover from a pandemic caused by a zoonotic disease only adds to the bitter irony of the situation. We urge the Government to think again.”
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“6000 species”? I think you may have a typo.
Magpie – that’s what RSPB say. There are a lot of invertebrates in the world I am told.
Sorry, my mistake, I had my bird blinkers on.
Not to forget plants and fungi!
It’s pointless appealing to the conscience of the crime syndicate that poses as the government. We simply can’t let this desecration go ahead, so there appears to be no alternative to direct action.
Maybe the two that are against protecting this beautiful place and its wildlife would like to explain just why they’re in favour of trashing it in the name of profit?
I’d say I was shocked, but that would be a lie. This was another of those things that they announced in order to get a positive headline, but had no intention of ever following through on. They didn’t care then, and they don’t care now.
Don’t expect anything less from this government.
Disregard what they say and just watch what they do!
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/585c3439be65942f022bbf9b/t/5f96dc32289db279491b5687/1603722339961/Rethinking+Energy+2020-2030.pdf
The above link is for the latest report by Tony Seba’s RethinkX. For anybody left that still believes we will still need nuclear by the time this thing has destroyed Minsmere, it is well worth a read.
Johnson sounds more like Trump everyday. The more we shout no the more he will say yes. Somebody must surely be planning to take this through the courts.
I’m with Coop, sometimes direct action seems to be the only thing we have left.
You never seem to hear of energy conservation as a strategy these days (said the old fart sucking boiled sweets with a tartan rug over his knees). I wonder how much the money spent on expanding Sizewell could cut energy use instead if spent on a national insulation programme. Ecodesign of buildings seems to have dropped away, it was all the rage a while back, for once there was a good fashion – but being a fashion it changed. Why aren’t all new houses having to incorporate rainwater capture for toilet flushing, passive design, maximum insulation and solar panels? We can’t save nature without saving natural resources and conservation organisations really need to do far more pushing it.
The money being spent on HS2 (so people can get to interviews or meetings with design teams a bit quicker it seems to me) could have done absolute marvels if spent reopening pre Beeching railways and stations. In Scotland I’m not aware of any case where a reopened line hasn’t dramatically EXCEEDED the projected passenger figures. Even in Falkirk district which does very well for railway stations we could do with two new ones. It’s vanity projects and meeting demand rather than reducing/planning it that dominate politically though. Would Extinction Rebellion make more of an impact if it could submit alternative plans alongside its protesting as happened with ‘A Peoples’ Manifesto for Wildlife’?
EDFs glossy and expensive PR campaign (adverts in the local papers and all) trumpeting claims of ‘biodiversity net gain’ from the Sizewell project is already being comprehensively debunked. They’re now desperately scrabbling around to try and find more compensation sites, including ones miles away and ecologically irrelevant to the Minsmere environs, to fiddle with to try and make their numbers stack up. Another example of rampant abuse of the biodiversity accounting system, but this time the wool has slipped or is slipping from the eyes of the stakeholders they thought they’d bought. RSPB, Suffolk Wildlife Trust and local people have been fed hollow promises by EDF for years so it is great to see Becky Speight at last coming out and openly lambasting them for what they are. There can and should be no question: Sizewell C represents a massive, massive threat to the RSPBs flagship reserve and its international renown, and to the integrity of the wider coastal marshes and fens, sandlings and shingle habitats within which it sits and on top of which this horrorshow is to be dumped. You could hardly pick a more sensitive area for a new nuclear facility and if there wasn’t already one there due to past retrograde decisions, no-one would begin to countenance such a proposal. Two wrongs don’t make a right. But this is yet another project that is deemed by Government to have too many signatures and greasy handshakes and too much momentum behind it to be derailed by mere environmental considerations. Or indeed cost considerations. Should we really give the people behind the massive, massive overspend at Hinkley C the green light to build another reactor in the UK? Not relevant, press on, press on. We’ve started something increasingly exposed as monumentally stupid, so we’ll finish. At least Hitachi had the good sense to pull the plug at Wylfa.
I am interested to see what the RSPB looks like with its gloves off.
Minsmere is so obviously worth fighting for.
Have a gander here at the various idiots and frauds that support EDF.
https://twitter.com/RSPBMinsmere/status/1326169824742043648
The North Sea is surely a more important wildlife site than Minsmere, so why don’t windfarm developers get the same flak as EDF?
At this time of year, I think it’s a fair bet that thousands of fieldfares, redwings and woodocks are crashing into turbines, especially on misty nights.
My own guess is that birds and other wildlife would/will adapt to Sizewll expansion.
It might bring in a few other bird species – eg black redstarts.
James – you need to read the reasons behind the RSPB’s opposition to what EDF are doing (not all of which I share, by the way).