In June 2006, under a Labour-government in the UK, the Conservative leader, David Cameron, announced that “a Conservative government will… implement an Emissions Performance Standard (EPS). This would mean the carbon emissions rate of all electricity in our country cannot be any higher than that generated in a modern gas plant”. The Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg made similar commitments.

Such a policy would have restricted greenhouse gas emissions and encourage more efficient technology-use, and would have been key in meeting the UK targets for decarbonising the energy sector by 2030.

However, the two parties having now formed a coalition government, the leaders appear to be back-tracking on their earlier commitments. Instead of implementing the EPS this autumn they intend to work on ‘the larger picture', and postpone introducing any such standard.

This non-committal for a policy which both party leaders supported while in opposition, will allow a new fleet of dirty coal-fired power plants to slip through the system in the UK. For example, Peel Power, an energy company in Scotland, has already proposed the building of a new largely unabated coal plant.

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