COAL PLANT 'WILL HIT AFRICAN POOR'

Anti-poverty campaigners at the World Development Movement (WDM) also said the controversial plan could be responsible for up to 60,000 more people suffering from drought in Africa.

And they said about 30,000 others could lose their homes every year due to coastal flooding if the Government approves the plant at Kingsnorth on the Hoo Peninsula in Kent.

Energy giant E.ON has submitted a hotly-contested application for a £1 billion investment to create the first new coal-fired power plant in Britain for 30 years at Kingsnorth.

The company says that, if built, it could set a new benchmark for cleaner coal-fired generation in the UK, producing enough electricity to supply around 1.5 million homes.

But environmentalists fear it would be a step backwards in the UK's commitment to fight climate change and they insist that coal is the most polluting way of generating electricity. Opponents have piled pressure on Climate and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and have called on him to show commitment to tackling global poverty and climate change by rejecting the plan.

In newly-released figures, the WDM also said that up to 40,000 more people could be exposed to malaria, and that 50,000 more people could go hungry due to drought and lower crop yields if the Kingsnorth plans gains approval.

Deborah Doane, director of the WDM, said: "These figures reveal, for the first time, the devastating human impact of building a new Kingsnorth coal power station. The world's poorest people will lose their water supply, food and homes, and ultimately will die as a direct result of our desire to burn more coal.

"The Government must not give the green light to any new coal power stations in the UK unless all of the carbon emissions are captured and buried from day one."

A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: "Regardless of what happens in the UK, the reality is that coal will continue to be used around the world so the challenge is to decarbonise this form of electricity generation. That is why the UK is leading the way in developing carbon capture and storage technology and is funding up to four demonstration projects."