CAMPAIGNERS fighting a US company which wants to build an incinerator close to Longparish hope the government’s pledge to make the UK carbon neutral by 2050 will help their case.

Protest group Keep Test Valley Beautiful say the proposed waste to energy incinerator alongside the Enviropark on the A303 would “add to global warming”.

Theresa May announced the government’s ambitious plan to tackle global warming as one of her last acts before stepping down. Meanwhile Hampshire County Council is the latest to declare a climate emergency, along with Winchester City Council and Whitchurch Town Council.

A spokesman for the group, Andy Jolliffe, says waste-to-energy incineration adds to global warming.

He added the secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs, Michael Gove, recently reacted encouragingly to a question in the House of Commons doubting the need for more waste incinerators.

Mr Joliffe said: “Wheelabrator describe what they will produce as green energy, but it’s nothing of the sort. The steam emerging from the twin chimneys will also contain noxious gasses which will add to climate change for the next 30 years or more.

“On top of that an 8km trench will have to be dug past Andover for electricity to reach the National Grid, and there’s nowhere nearby that could use any of the excess heat it creates.”

As part of the proposal, the number of lorry movements would rise to at least four hundred every 24 hours, many of them will be transporting waste from up to at least two hours away, which has been met with criticism from the group, who say that the county council already deals with all its own waste with three smaller incinerators across the county.

The business says that it will be able to process 450,000 tonnes of waste a year which will power around 110,000 homes.

The company says it will consult with nearby residents throughout the process to build the facility.

Mr Joliffe added: “It just doesn’t make any sense to be building dirty, polluting incinerators while the nation is trying to take drastic action to reduce its emissions.

“It’s alarming that industry and government still claim energy from waste incineration is ‘green’. The reality is very different, as incineration emits more climate changing gasses per unit of electricity than even coal or oil powered generation.

“We hope the government will soon realise that waste to energy is not at all green. Rather than burning our waste, we should be finding new and better ways to recycle it.”