Energy minister Malcolm Wicks has outlined his support for the proposed new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent, arguing that a moratorium on coal power would be unrealistic and leave the UK more reliant on gas imports from unstable parts of the world.

Speaking in an interview with the Guardian newspaper, he also dismissed Tory proposals for Californian-style standards that would effectively force Kingsnorth operator E.ON to ensure carbon capture and storage technology is installed at the site by 2020 or have its planning permission revoked, arguing that such legislation would result in the company dropping the project.

"I think if we did that at the moment, when we do not know for sure that CCS will work, the engineering has not yet been tested and no one is fully aware of what the costs might be, then that would put an end to coal-fired power stations and demonstration plants and people would build gas again," he explained, adding that "I don't want to exaggerate, but gas comes from some fairly unstable parts of the world and some not readily associated with human rights and democracy."

Wicks instead argued that the price of carbon imposed by the European emissions trading scheme will provide energy operators with the financial incentive required to invest in CCS. However, he admitted that while energy company Drax recently cited the cost of carbon credits as a cause of its falling profits, it was unclear what price a tonne of carbon would have to reach to make it worth energy companies' while installing CCS.

His comments came as the Climate Camp protests at the Kingsnorth site drew to a close following about 50 arrests on Saturday.

The cabinet now has to reach a final decision on whether or not to green light the controversial project and whether thereafter to make it the site of the UK's first CCS demonstration facility.

Ministers are reported to be split on the topic and will have to wait until the autumn to reach a final decision, when a long-anticipated ruling on the definition of what constitutes "carbon capture ready" is released. The government had said that if it does give the go-ahead the site must be "carbon capture ready", but E.ON insisted it would not proceed with the project until there is a clearer definition as to what this means.

Wicks, however, is adamant that approval must be granted. "If as some kind of gesture we said no to new coal-fired power stations, we would be in a very difficult position of not being able to develop this [CCS] technology ourselves, " he told the Guardian, adding that without the emergence of CCS the economies of China and India would continue to burn coal at potentially disastrous rates.

"Once we can develop those technologies, we can help the Chinese, the Indians and others to retrofit power stations and make CCS a component of new coal-fired power stations," he said. "That is the only way we will tackle this problem."