Podcast

Demonstrators gather as MEP's back caps on carbon emissions from power stations

As MEPs met to decide on a range of climate change issues in Brussels, protestors campaigning against the construction of 50 coal fired power plants held a lively demonstration outside the parliament under the slogan, No More Coal.

Stefan Singer, Director Global Energy Policy, World Wildlife Fund explained what they were asking for, “We want the policymakers, especially in the Parliament to address the emerging threat of coal. Coal is coming back in a big way, it is cheap and abundantly available, but it is the biggest offender to the climate system. It has the highest emissions and it is dirty. We need to do something this if we want to take climate change seriously.”

He denied that he was anti-coal, but suggested that putting a cap on emissions would force power generators to look for ways of using cleaner coal in a more efficient way and developing renewable energy sources. MEPs were also asked to look into co-ordinating the European power grid to make it more responsive and efficient.

The European Parliament's environment committee voted to supply billions of euros to help test carbon capture and storage technology (CCS), something Stefan backs, saying if CCS works then there is a future for coal.

Interview with Stefan Singer (mp3 4.02mb 8:47)

Photos of the demonstration

 Today, I attended a meeting on Georgia and the EU, organised by the Centre for European Policy Studies. During a break I managed to get an interview with Ghia Nodia, the Georgian Minister for Education.

I also came accross two interesting papers, Post-Mortem on Europe’s First War of the 21st Century by CEPS Michael Emerson and Ghia Nordia's The war for Georgia: Russia, the west, the future

The interview is here (mp3 6:28 min 2.96MB)

It seems that the EU visit to Moscow has been quite successful: Russia agrees to a deadline for withdrawl

This morning I interviewed Nigel Farage MEP, leader of UKIP and of the EU Parliament's Independence and Democracy movement.

He had many interesting things to say regarding security, electoral reform, David Davis and civil liberties and the rise of the political class. As you would expect, this interview had to be interrupted several times, because of his job and positionand recording was paused at times, so I apologise for this, but the interview is worth listening to for anyone interested or involved in Europe.

Part One (25:38 mins 13MB)

Part Two (14:06 mins, 6.45MB)

There was a good turn out on this hot day and as BBC Brussels staff lined up holding portraits of Alan, the spokesman, Johnny Diamond gave an impassioned speech to remember him and a direct plea for his release.

Margot Wallstrom, vice-president of the commission said the EU would do all it could as did Leila Shahid, the Palestinian Authority's envoy to the EU.

Listen to our interview with Johnny Diamond (mp3) on the kidnapping and the difficulties facing journalists

Our second interview from the al-jazeera Forum last week. This is a 20 minute interview with Hugh Miles, author of "al-Jazeera, How Arab TV News Challenged the World".

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Hugh goes into detail about al-Jazeera, its values, it's significance and it's potential. For anyone who wants a quick grounding in this listen here, if you want to go into the subject further, go to Amazon and buy the book, it's highly recommended.

The first of a series of interviews we conducted whilst we were at the al-Jazeera Forum last week.
This is a 20 minute Breakfast Interview with Dahr Jamail, covering his experiences in Iraq and Fallujah, the failings of mainstream media in reporting Iraq, and the potential for disaster if the rhetoric directed at Iran turns into US action.

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We would like to dedicate this to George Dubya, in honour of his current little constitutional difficulties...

It is a remix of an Alabama3 remix of the gospel classic 'God's Unchanging Hand', featuring American presidents past and present, introduced by Don Rumsfeld.

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