|PIC1|New government plans to clean up coal power stations are too weak to ensure that the UK keeps its promises to cut carbon emissions, says Christian Aid.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Ed Miliband announced yesterday the Government's plans to build four new carbon capture and storage coal-fired power plants.

Christian Aid's senior adviser on climate change Dr Alison Doig said the plans would make coal power stations less harmful to the world's climate but still allow them to remain "unnacceptably dirty and damaging".

"Companies want guarantees about the financial risk of building new coal power stations with carbon capture and storage. We want guarantees that those power stations will not exacerbate the already devastating effects of climate change in developing countries," she said.

She criticised the Government's plans for failing to clarify how the UK will transfer carbon capture and storage technology to developing countries like India and China.

"It is right to spend public money on testing CCS – but the funds must be used as leverage to ensure that recipient companies share their results with poor countries," she said.

The aid agency wants the Government to give assurances that the carbon emissions from the new coal power stations will be near zero by 2020.

Dr Doig said a clear plan for an emissions performance standard was needed to help the UK power sector reduce its emissions to zero by 2030.

Mr Miliband's announcement, she said, "falls well short of that".