‘Reckless in the extreme’: Outrage as government poised to green-light UK’s first new coal mine for decades
The UK government is said to be “on the cusp” of giving the go-ahead to a controversial new coal mine in Cumbria, sparking a furious response from concerned environmental groups and campaigners.
Under the proposals the Woodhouse colliery, near Whitehaven in Cumbria, will be the first new deep coal mine since the 1980s and will extract coking coal from beneath the Irish Sea, 85 per cent of which will be exported.
According to a report in the Sunday Telegraph, Michael Gove, the levelling-up, housing and communities secretary, could approve the contentious new mine as soon as next month.
The coking coal will be used by the steel industry, but critics have said it is unnecessary now that hydrogen and electricity-based technologies can be used to make steel.
The mine has already attracted international condemnation with Joe Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry criticising the plans ahead of the Cop26 summit hosted by the UK last year, calling coal “the dirtiest fuel in the world”.
“Senior Conservative Party sources” told The Sunday Telegraph that Mr Gove is believed to be supportive of the plan to open the mine, and his decision will largely hinge on the recommendations set out by the Planning Inspectorate.
The mine was controversially given the green light by local councillors in October 2020, causing anger that the government had declined to “call in” such a major development with considerable emissions potential.
After furious opposition, the government pulled a hard U-turn and launched an inquiry to review plans for the £165m mine.
The government’s independent advisers, the Climate Change Committee, said the Woodhouse colliery “will increase global emissions and have an appreciable impact on legally binding carbon budgets”.
Though the government has until July to reach a verdict on the project, it appears a decision could now be imminent.
The move towards expanding UK coal production comes as the government has also committed to new drilling in the North Sea for oil and gas.
Campaigners have said the government is undermining Britain’s position as a world leader on addressing the global climate crisis.
Just this month, the secretary-general of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, warned that governments must take much more radical action to slash greenhouse gas emissions.
Launching the latest report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, he warned: “Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals. But the truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing production of fossil fuels.
“Investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure is moral and economic madness.”
Carla Denyer, co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, told The Independent that allowing the mine to go ahead meant Boris Johnson’s government was undermining a core message – to cut use of coal – agreed at the Cop26 summit in Glasgow.
She said: “The plan to give the green light to a new coal mine in Cumbria is reckless in the extreme and shows a Tory government abandoning any pretence of leadership on the climate crisis. As Cop26 president, the government is urging other countries to take climate action, while back home it agrees to investment in the most polluting of all fossil fuels.
“We need to be investing in renewables and a nationwide home insulation programme to address the cost of living crisis and cut carbon emissions, not shovelling more money into coal.”
Tony Bosworth, energy campaigner at Friends of the Earth, told The Independent the government must instead focus on helping to support growth in clean industries, to provide sustainable jobs to areas where they are needed.
