Consumers are going to have to demand cleaner electricity if British power companies are to change their carbon polluting ways.
That was the message from a meeting between the Cut the Carbon marchers and one of the UK’s biggest carbon emitters International Power.
British marchers Rachel Tavernor and John Rowlands were joined by Bishop Geoff Davies from South Africa, as well as Christian Aid’s head of campaigns Paul Brannen, when they visited Rugeley coal-fired power station in Derbyshire.
They met the power station’s manager, David Leich, and Beth Akers, International Power’s communications manager for a wide ranging discussion lasting two hours.
Mr Leich and Ms Akers told the Christian Aid delegation as a demand-led business they could only respond to what their customers, the electricity suppliers (such as Powergen, British Gas, EDF) wanted.
Disappointingly these companies are not currently asking for cleaner electricity.
It's up to us
This lack of customer demand for green energy lies at the heart of the problem, along with the government's failure to give companies financial incentives to invest in clean sources of electricity.
This situation leads to the problem articulated by Bishop Geoff after the meeting: ‘It is increasingly difficult to see how we are going to change public opinion to be serious about cutting carbon emissions.
We have to realise it is our demand for energy that is endangering the world and demand in this sense is like the demand for drugs – it’s not a good thing.’
At one level, it is appropriate for Christian Aid to criticise International Power, as we have done and will keep doing, for carbon dioxide emissions that are far higher than those of other companies in the energy sector.
At another level, we should really be blaming ourselves, because we are the customers who indirectly buy International Power’s ‘dirty’ product.
Fair trade power
'It reminded me of where we were in the fair trade with supermarkets 15 years ago,' said Paul Brannen after the meeting.
'The big supermarkets said they would be willing to stock fairly-traded goods if there was a customer demand for them. Christian Aid, along with others, showed the big supermarkets that there was indeed a customer demand.
'We now clearly need to do the same thing all over again, but this time with the power companies. The new campaign message to companies like International Power needs to be: We want greener electricity and we will change our suppliers to get it’.
Power companies will only invest in renewable sources of energy such as wind and water if makes financial sense for them to do so.
Switch now!
So consumers need to demand that their electricity comes from renewable sources, and the easiest way to do this is to switch to your supplier’s green tariff.
Call your supplier now and move over to a green tariff:
British Gas - 0845 600 5001
Ecotricity* - 0800 032 6100
EDF Energy (London) - 0870 196 1056
EDF Energy (East of England) - 0870 196 3090
EDF Energy (South East) - 0845 601 4516
Npower – 0800 073 3000
Powergen - 0500 240 5000
Scottish Power - 08452 700 700
Southern Electric - 0845 7444 555
SWALEC - 0800 052 5252
Utilita Services Limited - 0845 450 4357
The gas and electricity watchdog Energywatch has produced a guide to the different types of green tariff – see www.energywatch.org.uk
*Christian Aid benefits financially when its supporters sign up with Ecotricity, a company which is building new wind farms in order to meet the growing demand for renewable energy in the UK.