THE firm behind controversial plans for the UK's first Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) plant near Kincardine has dismissed a green charity's report that the proposals are “completely reckless”.

Cluff Natural Resources (CNR) said the Friends of the Earth Scotland (FoES) report was “designed purely to intimidate communities and politicians” ahead of an independent review of UCG to Scottish ministers.

CNR wants to plough £250million into the Kincardine project, which it claims could potentially generate £603million for Fife’s economy as well as create 1,000 jobs.

The company had been granted a licence by the Coal Authority for UCG in the Forth, covering a 3,687-hectare site which includes the coastline from Kincardine to Crombie Point.

CNR said previously there was an estimated 335 million tonnes of coal under the seabed in the licence area and chief executive and chairman Algy Cluff also claimed UCG could save the now-shut Longannet Power Station's future.

However, following the Scottish Government's moratorium on UCG in October 2015, CNR announced in January that it was pulling all funding for the project and would instead focus on north-east England.

FoES has now published a report claiming UCG poses “serious dangers” to climate change, local environmental impacts and public health.

The report, which includes case studies from Australia, China, South Africa, the UK and the US, comes before Professor Campbell Gemmell is due to submit his review of UCG to Scottish ministers under the current moratorium.

Report author, FoES campaigner Flick Monk, said: “The history of UCG is littered with contamination incidents, ground subsidence and industrial accidents.

“Given what we know about this technology's chequered history around the world, plans to burn coal seams under the Firth of Forth are completely reckless.”

FoES wants the Scottish Government to ban UCG and “end the threat” to communities around the Forth.

The report states that if the Kincardine project went ahead, around 120 million tonnes of CO2 could be released into the atmosphere, more than twice Scotland’s annual carbon emissions.

It highlighted UCG causing “irreversible environmental damage” in Australia and the long-lasting contamination of groundwater in the US.

Andrew Nunn, CNR chief operating officer, dismissed the report because it “has been written by a Friends of the Earth staff member with no scientific or engineering qualifications and a pre-determined view on the future requirement for fossil fuels”.

He added: “The report talks a lot about the potential risks associated with UCG projects but doesn’t discuss probability of those risks occurring or the magnitude of impact which leads us to believe that this report is designed purely to intimidate communities and politicians ahead of the publication of independent reports on UCG being prepared for the Scottish Government.

“We have always acknowledged that a number of UCG projects have failed to meet those standards which most stakeholders would find acceptable but to ignore modern UCG projects which have clearly demonstrated that with appropriate site selection, engineering and operational oversight, the technology is capable of delivering a credible alternative to imported natural gas would be foolhardy within the wider context of the UK’s energy security and industrial strategy.”