Government protects British Coal in talks on new SO<SUB>2</SUB> target

The long-running international conflict over the UK's contribution to acid pollution overseas is set to resume in Geneva in mid-August. In talks on a new agreement on sulphur dioxide, the UK, in an apparent effort to safeguard markets for British coal, is to insist on no more than a 70% cut in its emissions from 1980 levels into the next century. Its demands not only conflict with a policy for curbing acid deposition which the UK has itself been advocating for several years, but also appear to be based on optimistic assumptions about the amount of coal which electricity generators will want to burn after the end of the century.