Power to the people

This (from The Times) bothers me:

The Government is considering blocking an aid project to provide reliable coal-fired electricity for millions of South Africans after coming under intense pressure from green groups in the run-up to the election.

On Thursday, Britain will cast the deciding vote on whether the World Bank should grant a $3.7 billion (£2.4 billion) loan to allow South Africa to build the Medupi coal plant.

It would be bigger than Drax, Britain’s largest coal plant, and pump out an estimated 25 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year into the atmosphere.

But it would reduce the risk of power cuts, which have caused billions of pounds of damage to South Africa’s economy in the past two years. The national grid came close to collapsing in 2008 and the South African Government was forced to impose rolling blackouts.

It's bad enough that the current Government's dithering has left the UK at serious risk of power shortages within the next few years. Now, for the sake of a few green votes on May 6, Gordon Brown may be prepared to keep black South Africans in the dark too.

The Medupi plant has been endorsed by the World Bank, which may just possibly have studied it more closely than Gordon Brown has. It makes use of one of South Africa's main natural resources, coal. Most importantly, it will go some way to alleviating severe inequalities in living standards in that country -- and, as has been very well documented, nothing leads more directly to better environmental standards than a higher standard of living. It would be a big mistake for the UK to veto it.