Power stations 'must cut emissions'

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The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) said "urgent and ambitious" steps were needed to develop measures to capture and store underground the carbon produced by burning fossil fuels.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) can cut emissions by as much as 90%, and power stations should face limits of that order to ensure it is employed.

The Government is "very unlikely" to meet its own greenhouse gas reduction targets unless it sets a deadline after which unabated emissions from power stations are outlawed, the MPs said.

The EAC said CCS had the potential to contribute significantly to reducing emissions both domestically and internationally.

But even with the promise of CCS - which is not yet commercially available - coal should be seen as a last resort in the UK, the committee warned.

The committee said it was concerned the Government was considering a new era of coal power stations because it was the easy option, warning such an approach was extremely dangerous.

With no certainty over when the technology will be commercially available, plans to develop new coal-fired power stations will lock the country into a high-emissions future, the MPs said.

Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said he was pleased the committee had recognised the steps the UK was taking towards developing clean coal technology, with the demonstration plant and a strong record on research and development.

"We are committed to the development and deployment of CCS technology and we intend to be one of the first countries in the world to demonstrate the technology on a coal-fired station at a commercial scale," he said.