Oxfam today showed how football fans were not getting to see the true picture of FA sponsor E.ON, which plans to build the UK’s first coal plant in three decades and which would lock the UK into coal power for another generation.

 

As FA Cup sponsors, E.ON has praised football fans for pledging to save 84,091 tonnes of CO2 through their carbon footy campaign - the weight of 57.8m footballs by making simple changes in their lives.

 

But if the new coal plant in Kingsnorth is given the go ahead in three months, the plant would emit 7m tonnes of CO2 a year - 83 times the amount football fans have saved, more than the emissions of 30 developing countries combined and the weight of 4.8bn footballs. It will also open the way for a new coal era - with devastating implications for future UK emissions.

 

Oxfam called on E.ON to review its plans in a new report Forecast for Tomorrow, which assesses the gathering storm of competing interests, disjointed government and powerful corporates that threaten to help push global emissions to dangerous levels.

 

The international aid agency says key decisions in the next few months are going to be made - including whether Kingsnorth should go ahead and how far the UK will cut emissions in the world’s first-ever Climate Change Bill. Whether the right decisions are made will determine if millions of poor people already living on the frontline of climate change will get some reprieve.

 

Oxfam campaigns and policy director and Leeds fan, Phil Bloomer said: “It’s great that companies are encouraging people to car-share and consider their impacts on the planet. However many football fans will be surprised to learn that while E.ON is encouraging supporters to do the right thing with their own carbon footprint their own plan completely undermines this initiative.

 

“In our work, we see how millions of poor people around the world are already feeling the impacts of climate change the worst, despite  being the least responsible. Floods, droughts and hurricanes mean many lose their homes or their livelihoods, face hunger or are threatened by disease. E.ON should look at their own carbon footprint before challenging people to consider theirs.  It’s time for companies and government departments in the UK to step up to the mark and truly set the UK towards a low-carbon future.”

 

To find out how you can help the UK make the right decisions - and to blow the whistle on E.ON so that it helps the UK truly move to a low-carbon future visit www.oxfam.org.uk/climatechange

 

/Ends

 

For more information, images, interviews or to see the report, please call Lucy Brinicombe, 01865 472192 / 07786 110054 / lbrinicombe@oxfam.org.uk or Jon Slater, 01865 472249 / jslater@oxfam.org.uk

 

To see a copy of the report visit:

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/policy/climate_change/forecast_tomorrow.html

 

 Notes to Editors:

 

Oxfam is committed to reducing its own carbon footprint by 27 per cent over the next three years from 16,888 tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2006/7 to 12,294 tonnes. These will be genuine reductions made without the use of carbon off-setting schemes. Reductions are being achieved through a series of measures including: buying electricity from renewable sources; reduced air travel and paper consumption, and use of recycled paper.

More from the Oxfam Press Office at http://www.oxfam.org.uk/news