Big biomass fears prompt Leithers to keep up campaign against subsidy loopholes

This Thursday there was a protest outside Holyrood that featured people dressed up as trees, protest songs and numerous Leithers.

All were gathered to try to persuade the Scottish Government to close loopholes in the new proposed subsidy regime that would allow large biomass power plants - similar to the one Forth Energy proposed to build on Leith - to claim considerable public subsidies whilst delivering little environmental benefit.

Even though Forth Energy have dropped their last proposal for a power plant on Leith Docks - locals fear that if the parliament rubber stamps the current proposals the firm may return to Leith with a new proposal for another giant, inefficient power station.

Our response to a Scottish Government consultation on the public subsidy regime outlines these loopholes in detail. You can read it here.

You can find a joint policy briefing from Biofuelwatch, No Lieth Biomass, Grangemouth Community Council and Friends of the Earth Scotland here.

Here's a video clip of what local MSP's, Malcolm Chisholm and Alison Johnstone said to the gathered crowd.

Sally Miller, from the No Leith Biomass campaign also managed to get folk singing a specially written protest song. Here's a short audio clip of the singing:

listen to ‘Don't burn the trees, big biomass is wrong’ on Audioboo

Pedal On Parliament Leith feeder ride

Following some Twitter chat between local cyclists we decided that there really should be some sort of a Leith feeder ride for the Pedal on Parliament protest ride. Afterall, Leithers have something to protest about given that Leith Walk has been named and shamed in the top 10 of the worst UK cycling streets.

So we've come up with a route that avoids Leith Walk. It is mainly on traffic free paths and quiet streets to help get folk from Leith to the Meadows. Although there are a few short stretches of busy road, by and large it should be fairly pleasant, as it takes in Leith Links, Lochend Park and Holyrood Park.

Here's a map of it:

View POP Scotland Leith Feeder Ride - Proposed Route in a larger map

There is a bit of a hill up from Holyrood to the Commie Pool. But don't worry - this isn't a race or a competition. As it's a protest, style wins out over speed. Indeed we positively welcome folk who subscribe to the school of cycling thought that says "if you're sweating you're going too fast."

Anyone who wants to join this historic protest is welcome to come along with us for the ride.

We're meeting at 12.45pm on the 28th of April outside Mal Maison on the Shore - aiming for a 1pm depart.

The official protest ride itself doesn't actually leave the Meadows until 3pm, so there's plenty of time. As a minimum, we reccomend you bring food, a waterproof and a puncture repair kit.

Incidentally, as we will cycle past Holyrood, you will be able to use the same route to get back to Leith after the protest is all over.

Lastly, if you need more information you should check out the Pedal on Parliament website which gives you a good idea what you can expect once we reach the Meadows.

Boring small print: This is not an 'official' Greener Leith ride, although the chances are there will be a few of the bike leaders we trained up as part of our We Love Leith project on it.

So although there will be friendly people who know where to go, ultimately if you come on the ride you should know that you are responsible for your own safety and that of any bairns you bring with you.

Nobody is insured or paid to look after you so in the extremely unlikely event that something bad happens please don't sue us or expect us to pay for taxis to get you home.

Final call for energyshare votes given push by parliament

After we teamed up with the only other shortlisted Scottish project in the UK wide Energyshare competion to launch our final push for votes on St Andrews day, a motion has been lodged at Holyrood calling on everyone in Scotland to vote for our projects. 

Remarkably, more than 24,000 votes have been cast in the online poll, with more than 3100 of those votes coming our way. Despite this, the Portobello and Leith Community Wind Turbine project is still only a tiny handful of votes ahead in the polls at the moment, with less than 48 hours to go before voting closes.

It is extremely likey that our nearest rivals in the competition will gain more votes in the closing phase of the competition, so if you have not yet voted for the project, or you know anyone who has not yet voted for the project, please vote, and then nag your friends/aquaintances/neighbours/colleagues to do the same. You can do it here, now: http://www.energyshare.com/voting/  

Your vote could really be the one that makes the difference between us gaining tens of thousands of pounds of funding - or getting nothing. You can find out more about our plans by clicking here. 

Greener Leith volunteers will be encouraging Leithers to vote for our project tomorrow (friday) by holding a "vote-a-thon" at both libraries in Leith tomorrow around lunchtime.

The full text of the Holyrood motion reads: 

Motion S4M-01448 — Rob Gibson (Caithness, Sutherland and Ross) (Scottish National Party) : Vote, Vote, Vote for Strathpeffer, Portobello and Leith

That the Parliament con­grat­u­lates Strathpeffer Community Centre in Ross-shire and Portobello and Leith Community Wind Energy Project in Edinburgh for mak­ing it through to the final round of vot­ing in the Energyshare.com con­test to receive fund­ing toward com­ple­tion of their com­munity renew­ables and energy sav­ing pro­jects; notes that they are the only Scottish pro­jects to make it through to the final round and con­grat­u­lates them on what it sees as their drive and tenacity in pur­su­ing their pro­jects to this stage; notes that they have chosen St Andrew’s Day, Scotland’s national day, to launch a cam­paign for Scots to sup­port their two pro­jects; notes that both pro­jects have engaged with the local com­munity in the pro­mo­tion of renew­able energy and energy sav­ing; con­siders that community-owned renew­ables and energy sav­ing can make an import­ant con­tri­bu­tion to tack­ling cli­mate change and redu­cing fuel bills, and encour­ages all those who sup­port community-owned renew­ables and energy sav­ing to register their sup­port for these pro­jects on the energyshare.com web­site by 3 December 2011.

At the time of writing the motion has been supported by the following MSPs: Sandra White, Annabelle Ewing, Angus MacDonald, David Torrance, John Finnie, Dennis Robertson, Margaret Burgess, Richard Lyle, Kenneth Gibson, Adam Ingram, Gil Paterson, Mike MacKenzie, Bill Kidd, Patrick Harvie

However, many local MSPs have already publicly stated their backing for our bid including Malcolm Chisholm, Kenny McAskill, Alison Johnstone and Kezia Dugdale.

Malcolm Chisholm calls on Holyrood to toughen big biomass policies

Malcolm Chisholm with No Leith Biomass campaigners at the Foot of the Walk

Today in the Scottish Parliament there was a debate on the "Low Carbon Economy." Local MSP Malcolm Chisholm spoke at length in the debate about his reservations over the Forth Energy proposals for a giant power plant on Leith docks. 

We should add that we're delighted that he has mentioned our work on this issue in the Holyrood debating chamber too and that he has raised, once again, our calls for a moratorium on large scale biomass plants. There are a great many people, working both in and out of the parliament to campaign against the Forth Energy proposals on Leith Docks, and the other power plants they want to build elsewhere in Scotland.

If you would like to show your support for the campaign, there is a public protest this Saturday.  

In the meantime, we reproduce everything Mr Chisholm said today to save you searching for it on the Holyrood website: 

Malcolm Chisholm (Edinburgh Northern and Leith) (Lab): I want to concentrate on energy from a constituency point of view. There are wider agendas in achieving a low-carbon Scotland, including a step change in housing insulation and a serious drive towards a green transport strategy.

I want to ask what should be included in a definition of green energy, and to ask that question in the context of Forth Ports Ltd’s plans for Leith docks. At a recent meeting with the chief executive of Forth Ports, I was told that the company—which has recently been taken over by Arcus—was abandoning its housing plans for the Leith docks area in order to develop a renewable energy hub based on offshore wind and large-scale biomass, the latter as Forth Energy in partnership with Scottish and Southern Energy.

For Forth Ports, these two go hand in hand, but I want to challenge the green credentials of large-scale biomass while welcoming the prospect of Leith docks as a site for the manufacture and assembly of wind turbines, as envisaged in Scottish Enterprise’s national renewables infrastructure plan. There have been massive campaigns in Leith over the past year or more against the proposed large-scale biomass plant at Leith docks. This action has been spearheaded by the formidable and admirable no Leith biomass plant group.

I have submitted detailed objections that cover the many specifically local implications as well as the wider climate change consequences. Given the subject of our debate, I want to concentrate on the latter, although visual, traffic and local environmental concerns are all covered in my submission, which is on my website and the Scottish Government’s website—I thank the Scottish Government for that.

Greener Leith is a key organisation that opposes the proposal, and its website refers to many important reports that question the green credentials of large-scale biomass. For example, it refers to a new report that has been produced by a coalition of European non-governmental organisations, which raises a host of environmental concerns about the growth and use of biomass for electricity generation, and includes a startling graph that shows that a biomass plant that uses a typical European-managed forest would result in increased carbon emissions for the first two and a half centuries. Perhaps that it is not too surprising if we consider that burning wood emits more carbon in the short run than burning coal. The scenario could be even worse if unsustainable plantations are used, and stopping that would be impossible in the future, despite the current guarantees from Forth Energy.

On its website, Greener Leith highlights a key quote from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, which has said:

“In particular, we are concerned that the methodology deployed to calculate the lifetime green house gas savings”

of the scheme—that is, the Leith biomass plant proposal—

“includes an assumption of zero emissions from land within the growing cycle of the fuels ... This is likely to be incorrect and therefore leads to a potentially significant underestimate of green house gas emissions from the fuel. The calculation of green house gas savings from transport may also be underestimated.”

Forth Energy has consistently promoted the idea that burning wood fuel and replenishing crops after harvest limits the levels of carbon that are released into the atmosphere, but an increasing number of environmental organisations have stated that that position is too simplistic. The long-term effects of biomass combustion on the atmosphere and on climate change depend on the type of feedstock that is used, how sustainable the source is, and the alternative energy sources that are displaced by investment in such plants.

It is remarkable that Forth Energy continues to categorise biomass energy as carbon neutral, as a large body of evidence has been produced by groups such as Friends of the Earth to demonstrate that biomass is not anywhere near as efficient as alternative clean energy sources, which represent far more effective use of Government funding and deliver instant carbon reduction. Biomass would not only displace traditional fossil fuel sources; it would affect the ability of wind and tidal power to distribute clean carbon-neutral energy throughout Scotland.

The moving planet march that will take place in Edinburgh this weekend will aim to highlight the fact that moving from fossil fuels to clean energy sources is essential in tackling climate change and poverty. As outlined in Friends of the Earth’s recent briefing on the event, that means that policy must be directed to ensuring investment in appropriate sustainable technologies.

Kevin Stewart: What are Mr Chisholm’s feelings about small-scale biomass, such as the biomass boiler that is being used to deal with the energy needs of the new Marischal college project in Aberdeen, which has received European funding?

Malcolm Chisholm: I was going to come on to that issue, although I may not have time to cover everything that I wanted to cover. Small-scale biomass—particularly for combined heat and power—is exactly what we need, rather than large-scale biomass. I was going to refer to an earlier Friends of the Earth publication entitled “Energy from Biomass: Straw Man or Future Fuel?” which made that particular point. It supported small-scale biomass plants and highlighted the issue of transportation of biomass material. That is, of course, a major concern for the proposed Leith plant, because the wood would be brought in from thousands of miles away. We must take all such factors into account. I am seriously concerned that the plant that has been proposed for Leith docks is not small scale, that the proposal would involve intensive harvesting overseas and long-distance transport, and that no concrete plans have been provided to date on how the heat by-product of combustion would be effectively distributed to the wider city.

I realise that there is a live application, but I do not see why the Government should not have a policy against large-scale biomass. It has a policy against nuclear power stations that does not rule out submission of individual applications. The Government should therefore have a policy against large-scale biomass. If it will not go that far, it should at least have a moratorium, pending further research on its climate change implications.

Forth Energy kick Leith Biomass plant into the long grass

An artists impression of the biomass plant, made using Google Earth. This view looks down Constitution Street from a tall building.If you take a look at the Forth Energy website, there's nothing on it to indicate that their plans for a giant power plant that they propose to build on Leith Docks have been put on the back burner.

Indeed, the firm has been busy of late, churning out glossy PR brochures for the other biomass plants they propose in other parts of Scotland called things like, ahem, "Greener Grangemouth." The brochures contain the same virtually meaningless pledges on fuel sources and questionable carbon savings claims that their planning applications do.

The only change now is that they've got some titles that imply in some way that they're part of an environmental organisation. Although imitation is the greatest form of flattery, as you can imagine, we've had some of Scotland's finest legal minds poised to sue for trademark infringement the moment Forth Energy publish their equivalent, "Greener Leith," newsletter for weeks. But for some reason it hasn't happened.

Recently, local MSP Malcolm Chisholm shed some light on the apparent delay at a Leith Links Community Council meeting. He said he'd managed to meet with Charles Hammond, head of Forth Ports and he confirmed that the Leith Biomass plant will be the last to be pursued by Forth Energy (Forth energy is part owned by Forth Ports).

Not only that, Mr Hammond apparently told Malcolm Chisholm that the council will not now consider the planning application in December as we'd previously be led to believe, but "later." Given that every single candidate in the recent City Centre by-election said that they'd vote against the Leith biomass plant proposals, it's probably an astute move on their part to push consideration of the proposal beyond May - as they may be hoping to avoid the proposal becoming a political issue in the next Scottish Local elections.

Judging by the way the politics is playing out, this would seem unlikely. We've already seen that the Leith Biomass plant remains a critical local issue, in large part due to the sterling efforts of the No Leith Biomass campaigners. But it's not just a local issue - the questionable environmental wisdom of burning lots of imported timber just to generate electricity is rising up both the policy and political agendas throughout the UK. 

Recently, the independent statutory body set up by the UK government to advise Westminster and the devolved administrations on climate change issues, The Committee on Climate Change, released a report that was pretty skeptical of using biomass for power generation in the way that Forth Energy proposes to do.

You can read their whole report below:

CCC_The Renewable Energy Review

This report, suggests that biomass should not be used for power generation without being fitted with Carbon Capture and Storage technology (which currently doesn't exist) and is probably not a good use of scarce global biomass resources.

This report has not gone unnoticed in Scotland. SNP MSP for the Falkirk area, Angus MacDonald ("Greener Grangemouth" is in his constituency) has submitted this motion in the Holyrood parliament:

Motion S4M-00748 - Angus MacDonald ( Falkirk East ) ( Scottish National Party ) : UK Committee on Climate Change Comments on Biomass

That the Parliament notes the recent publication by the influential UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC) of its review of the potential for renewable energy development; in particular notes its comments on biomass, including its preliminary conclusion that without CCS (carbon capture and storage), biomass would probably be of more value when used outside the power sector"; considers that this conclusion runs counter to Forth Energy's large-scale biomass proposals in Grangemouth, Rosyth, Dundee and Leith; welcomes the Scottish Government's preference for biomass to be deployed in heat-only or combined heat and power schemes, generally prioritised in off gas-grid areas, at a scale appropriate to make best use of both the available heat and local supply; looks forward to the CCC's more detailed assessment of biomass later in 2011, and calls on Scottish ministers to reject Forth Energy's proposals that require ministerial consent.

That motion is interesting as it explicitly calls on the Scottish Government proposals to deny Forth Energy consent for all four of their proposed large biomass plants.

Another recent motion at Holyrood may also be of interest too. Several Edinburgh MSP's have backed this one, which gives support to a planned protest march against the Biomass proposals later this month.

Motion S4M-00616 - Jim Eadie ( Edinburgh Southern ) ( Scottish National Party ) : Moving Planet March

That the Parliament supports the Moving Planet march and rally on Saturday 24 September 2011, called by the international non-governmental organisation, 350.org, to mark the Global Day of Climate Action; notes that 350.org calls for a sustainable energy future for the world at 350 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is what many scientists consider to be the safe upper limit; notes that the event will coincide with the world car-free day and that it will aim to put pressure on global leaders to commit to reducing CO2 levels in advance of the UN Climate Summit in Durban, South Africa, in November 2011, and welcomes the parallel aim of this event, to draw attention to opposition to the proposed Forth Energy biomass plant at Leith Docks.

Despite all this Forth Energy insist the Leith Biomass plan is still on the table. If you wish to support the campaigners who are trying to put the Leith Biomass plan in the long grass permanently, and you were wondering what else you can do now that you've put in your objection to the Leith Biomass plant, you can do these two things:

1. Use www.writetothem.com and urge your all your local MSP's - especially your list MSP's - to support both of these motions. Malcolm Chisholm, constituency MSP for Leith, has signed both, but there are still some list MSPs who have not.

2. Take part in the planned protest event on the 24th of September. You can find out more about the event here.

Leith Biomass protest at Holyrood

Photo credit: @Yonmei via TwitpicLeithers took the Leith Biomass protest to Holyrood today. The aim of the protest was to encourage more MSPs to question the claims made by Forth Energy for their proposals to build a giant power plant on Leith Docks. A number of MSPs came out to speak to the protesters including: Robin Harper, Malcolm Chisholm, Shirley-Anne Somerville, Cathy Peattie, Roseanna Cunningham and George Foukes. Shiela Gilmore, Labour MP for Edinburgh East was also there in support.

Guardian Beatblogger, Michael MacLeod was there. He interveiwed local councillors Gordon Munro and Rob Munn.

Both them said that they had not heard of a single person who supports the Forth Energy proposals. You can listen to the Guardian Edinburgh interview on Audioboo. 

In the interview, Cllr Munn revealed that Lib Dem Councillor, for the Leith Walk ward, Louise Lang, has now come out publicly in opposition to the plan, and both councillors conclude that the opposition to the plant in Edinburgh is now truly cross party, increasing the chances that the city will object to the plan, forcing a public enquiry.

In Holyrood, Shirley Anne Somerville asked the environment minister a question in parliament on the current government policy, reporting the response via Twitter:

Asked qu re #leithbiomass in parliament. Minister confirmed govt wish for small scale off grid chp biomass. Complete opposite of Leith. #fbless than a minute ago via TweetDeckS-A Somerville
S_A_Somerville

Last week, both Broughton and New Town and Leith Central Community Councils voted to oppose the plans too.

Meanwhile, Dr Ulrich Loening, an academic and timber firm owner, who was once described as one of "ten Scots who canl save the world," for his environmental work has written a guest post on the Friends of the Earth Scotland blog explaining why large biomass plants, like the proposed Leith power plant are unlikely to save much carbon any time soon.

Update on February 25, 2011 by Ally

Today, the Guardian published a YouTube video featuring interviews with many of the people at the Holyrood protest:

Big Biomass concerns raised at Holyrood

Only a few weeks after Sheila Gilmore MP raised concerns about the Forth Energy 'greenwash' in Westminster, Edinburgh list MSP, Shirley-Anne Somerville has proposed the following motion at Holyrood:

"S3M-7356# Shirley-Anne Somerville: Moratorium on Large-scale Biomass Plants—That the Parliament recognises the concerns of local communities in Leith, Dundee, Grangemouth and Rosyth at being faced with planning applications for large-scale biomass plants; notes that these concerns relate to emissions, air quality, odour, noise, traffic and visual impact; believes that such plants will also cause problems for wood markets and related industries; is concerned that the sustainability and environmental benefits of biomass power stations are very much in doubt because of fuel-sourcing issues and emerging research suggesting that they may not help Scotland meet its CO₂ reduction targets in the short term; notes also that biomass plants could expect significant subsidies under the Renewables Obligation Scheme, and considers that, until such time as the environmental impact of large-scale biomass power stations has been independently assessed, a moratorium on building such plants would be appropriate."

Many Leithers, and indeed residents of Rosyth, Dundee, and Grangemouth, will be delighted to see the call for a Moratorium on all large scale biomass plants being heeded in Holyrood, and to ensure that this motion has a chance of being debated in the parliament the Leith Against the Biomass campaign now need as many MSP's as possible, from as many different parties as possible to support the motion.

The best way to encourage MSP's to sign-up to the motion is for their constituents to write to them.

A special campaign has been set-up on the Call4.org website to make it easy for people to send an email to their constituency and list MSP's. So, if you support the No Leith Biomass campaign, you should click here and send that email now!

At the time of writing the motion already had the support of these MSP's:

Malcolm Chisholm, Jamie Hepburn, Kenneth Gibson, Bill Kidd, Rob Gibson, Aileen Campbell, Cathy Peattie, Hugh O’Donnell

These MSP's represent the SNP, Labour and the Liberal Democrats and come from Dundee, Central Scotland, Glasgow and Edinburgh areas.

We should also note that our local constituency MSP Malcolm Chisholm and Shirley-Anne Somerville have agreed to work together to promote this motion, despite the fact that they come from different political parties. It would be marvelous if other politicians would consider taking a similar non-partisan stance on this issue - as there's potentially an awful lot of public money at stake.

Holyrood enquiry seeks your views on active travel

At Holyrood, The Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee is holding an inquiry into walking and cycling in Scotland. Whilst Greener Leith has already submitted the results of our We Love Leith Travel Survey to the committee for their consideration, individuals - such as you - can also give evidence.

The questions that the enquiry are asking are:

Question 1	What more can be done to encourage people to change their travelling habits and walk and cycle more?
Question 2	Is enough progress being made in developing and delivering improvements in the uptake of walking and cycling?
Question 3	If not, what are the barriers to progress? (for example, lack of policy development, lack of political leadership, lack of funding/investment, the lack of prominence given to active travel in transport policy development, project planning and construction etc.)
Question 4	Why do walking and cycling policies set out in national, regional and local transport plans not result in a greater modal share for walking and cycling?
Question 5	What further action is required by the Scottish Government, local authorities and other bodies to ensure that significant progress is made in the development and implementation of walking and cycling, particularly if transport is to make a greater and more meaningful contribution to the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions?
Question 6	What can Scotland learn from good practice/successful implementation in other countries?

You don't need to answer all of them if you don't want to, and the parliament will accept a submission by email. More information here:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/ticc/inquiries/ActiveTravelViews.htm

Update on November 16, 2009 by Ally

Greener Leith has submitted a response to this consultation. You can download it by clicking here.