Proposed nuclear power station would sabotage Government’s 30 by 30 pledge to nature.
This week the Government has announced ‘greater protections for England’s iconic landscapes’ and has promised to designate more Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and “to protect and restore our natural environment and diverse ecosystems.” It comes at a time of increasing concern over EDF’s plans to build a new twin nuclear reactor on the Suffolk coast – Sizewell C – a development which would cut through the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and important wildlife designations.Suffolk Wildlife Trust believes that the proposed development in such a wildlife-rich, fragile location would be catastrophic for UK nature when wildlife declines are so extreme that the Government recently has committed to protect 30% of the UK’s land by 2030 to allow nature to recover. After a decade of assessing the impact, Suffolk Wildlife Trust believes that Sizewell C should not go ahead. The development would be devastating for nature.
Christine Luxton, Chief Executive of Suffolk Wildlife Trust says: “Sizewell C would destroy a vast swathe of the Suffolk coastline in one of the most beautiful natural parts of the UK. People visit this part of Suffolk from all over the country to enjoy the wild countryside. If this vast development gets the go-ahead, an area of the coast the size of 900 football pitches will be directly affected by the development. Barn owls, water voles and kingfishers will see their habitat destroyed. Nature is already in huge trouble and the sheer scale of this development will make a bad situation much, much worse. We will not solve the climate crisis by destroying natural habitats that lock-up carbon. This is the wrong time and the wrong place for such a colossal and damaging development.”
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Posted On: 18/11/2020