Climate Activists Cheer 'Two Down, One To Go', As Great Climate Swoop Looms

Today BAA, Heathrow's owners, announced that they are withdrawing their
application to government for a third runway at Heathrow airport, which
the Camp for Climate Action targeted in 2007 (1). On Wednesday, E.ON
announced they were indefinitely delaying building a new Kingsnorth power
station in Kent, which the Camp targeted in August 2008 (2). Both Climate
Camp targets now look very unlikely to ever be built.

The announcements have come as the climate movement prepares for the Great
Climate Swoop on 17th October, when they plan to take control of
Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal fired power plant operated by E.ON, which emitted
9.9 Million tonnes CO2 in 2008, and is the UK's third largest source of
CO2 emissions (3). Activists will be using youtube and twitter to
coordinate their takeover of the site and provide live minute-by-minute
internet coverage of the event (4).

Targetting E.ON's Ratcliffe plant continues the Camps focus on stopping
emissions from coal plants which are the UK's largest emitters, targeted
by the first Camp of Climate Action, at Drax, in 2006.

Campaigner Kay Wilkinson, said, "It's amazing. Two down, Heathrow and
Kingsnorth, one to go. But this is the hard one, can we get these dinosaur
coal plants replaced by renewable energy in time to avert a climate
catastrophe? It won't happen unless we step out of line, which is why I'll
be at Ratcliffe on Saturday."

Camper Dennis Stevens said: "This really shows people power in action.
These u-turns aren't coming from government, but from big businesses
backing down because of a ground swell of civil disobedience."

Emma Jackson, a spokesperson for the Climate Camp, added: "E.ON and BAA
know that the days of committing new climate crimes are over. Now we have
to start shutting down existing coal-fired power stations, and that's why
we're going to Ratcliffe-on-Soar next week."

More information on the Great Climate Swoop at Ratcliffe on Soar is
available at www.thegreatclimateswoop.org

07772861099, 07040900905 or 07932096677/  press@climatecamp.org.uk

ENDS
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NOTES FOR EDITORS

(1) www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6869676.ece :
'The airport operator BAA has bowed to opposition to a third runway at
Heathrow airport. It will not submit a planning application before the
general election and will not sign large contracts to “bounce” a future
Conservative government into accepting it.'

(2) Kingsnorth would have been the first coal-fired power station in the
UK for more than 30 years. If built, Kingsnorth will emit between 6 and 8
million tons of CO2 every year. If all the proposed coal plants proposed
for Britain were built, an extra 50 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a
year would be pumped into the atmosphere.

(3) Emissions from 2008:
www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLM253369. Ratcliffe-on-Soar emits
more CO2 each year than Costa Rica.

(4) see www.climatecamp.org.uk, climatecamp.tv