Meacher: Stop "chill can"

"Government must act"

Government Acts Against Chill Cans

The Environment minister, Michael Meacher, will call for a halt to the introduction of the new "chills cans" when he attends the EU Environment Council of Ministers meeting in Luxembourg.

"If we allow a gas which is so potent in producing global warming we are completely undermining international efforts to overcome this cause of global warming with all its very adverse consequences for human society," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

A production line for manufacturing the can is planned for the south-east of England, but Mr Meacher said the Government would try to block it.

"The fact is, if the self-chilling cans took on in a big way - and I entirely understand they might - if they captured, say 10% of the UK market in (the year) 2000, we estimate that they would produce emissions equivalent to 43.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide - that is over half the projected reduction in UK carbon dioxide emissions by the year 2000," said Mr Meacher.

"So how can we be asking industry and individuals to act responsibly in taking every action they can to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and then allow one manufacturer to negate half of that effort?" he asked. "No responsible government can do that."

The drinks industry regards the cans, which operate by a widget, as revolutionary because they can instantly chill drinks which have been at room temperature.

But environmentalists have attacked the cans for using HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons) which when released into the atmosphere increase harmful greenhouse gases.

They claim the gases used in the cans are three-and-a-half thousand times more warming than carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas, which countries are trying to slow down.

Campaigners fear the impact of millions of chill cans on sale around the world would be devastating and have been pressing the Government to act to prevent their distribution.