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UK’s approval of latest coal mine criticized as ‘deeply damaging mistake’


This picture, taken in March 2021, exhibits the location the place the brand new facility could be developed.

Christopher Furlong | Getty Photos Information | Getty Photos

LONDON — Plans for a deep coal mine within the northwest of England got the inexperienced mild by the U.Ok. authorities, a call that is been welcomed by its backers however slammed by critics.

In a press release reacting to the information, the agency behind the event stated it was “delighted with the choice.”

West Cumbria Mining stated the Woodhouse Colliery, within the county of Cumbria, would provide “the essential metal business with a high-quality metallurgical coal product.” In response to the enterprise, the undertaking will present roughly 500 direct jobs.  

The U.Ok. has an extended affiliation with coal mining, however the business’s decline hit many communities onerous and is an emotive topic. The explanations for the federal government’s choices had been outlined in an intensive doc printed on-line on Wednesday.

Amongst different issues, it stated Michael Gove, the secretary of state for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities, was “happy that there’s at present a UK and European marketplace for the coal … and that though there isn’t a consensus on what future demand within the UK and Europe could also be, it’s extremely possible {that a} international demand would stay.”

The approval for the Woodhouse Colliery was welcomed by Mike Starkie, the elected mayor of Copeland Borough Council in Cumbria. Chatting with BBC Radio 4’s “The World Tonight” on Wednesday, Starkie, who’s a member of the ruling Conservative Occasion, described himself as “completely thrilled.”

“I have been inundated with messages from throughout my group tonight, and we have got a group in celebration about one of many greatest constructive financial impacts on our space in a technology,” he added. “That is improbable information for West Cumbria and for our group.”

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Starkie’s enthusiasm was not shared by all. “Phasing out coal use is the clearest requirement of the worldwide effort in direction of Web Zero,” Lord Deben, chairman of the Local weather Change Committee, an unbiased physique which advises the U.Ok. authorities, stated.

“We condemn, subsequently, the Secretary of State’s resolution to consent a brand new deep coal mine in Cumbria, opposite to our earlier recommendation,” Deben added.

He went on to state that the UK’s “hard-fought international affect on local weather” had been “diminished by at present’s resolution.”

Alongside the CCC, different organizations had been additionally essential of the event shifting ahead. “That is an appalling resolution,” Tony Bosworth, a campaigner at Mates of the Earth, stated.

“Approving this mine is a misguided and deeply damaging mistake that flies within the face of all of the proof,” he added. “The mine is not wanted, will add to international local weather emissions, and will not exchange Russian coal.”

Greenpeace UK’s Coverage Director, Doug Parr, stated the mine would “do completely nothing for the UK’s power safety for the reason that coal it accommodates can solely be used for steelmaking, not producing energy, and greater than 80% of it’s earmarked on the market in Europe anyway.”

“There is a technological revolution constructing in steel-making, however this method might make the UK a backwater within the Twenty first-century clear tech race,” Parr stated.

Elsewhere, Jen Carson, who’s head of business on the Local weather Group, described the proposal to open the brand new coal mine as being “at odds with the metal sector, and the UK Authorities’s web zero pledge.”

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Whereas it was essential to the planet’s industrialization and stays a massively necessary supply of electrical energy, coal has a considerable impact on the setting.

The U.S. Vitality Data Administration lists a spread of emissions from coal combustion. These embody carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particulates and nitrogen oxides.

Elsewhere, Greenpeace has described coal as “the dirtiest, most polluting manner of manufacturing power.”

On the worldwide stage, the U.Ok.’s plans to develop a brand new website linked to the mining of fossil fuels are at odds with excessive profile worldwide voices comparable to Antonio Guterres, the U.N. secretary normal.

“The one true path to power safety, steady energy costs, prosperity and a livable planet lies in abandoning polluting fossil fuels — particularly coal — and accelerating the renewables-based power transition,” he stated earlier this yr.

In a press release despatched to CNBC on Thursday, a spokesperson for the Division for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities stated the secretary of state had “agreed to grant planning permission for a brand new metallurgical coal mine in Cumbria as advisable by the unbiased planning inspector.”

“This coal might be used for the manufacturing of metal and would in any other case should be imported,” they added.

“It is not going to be used for energy technology. The mine seeks to be web zero in its operations and is anticipated to contribute to native employment and the broader economic system.”

“The explanations for the Secretary of State’s resolution are set out in full in his printed letter, alongside the report of the unbiased planning inspector who oversaw the inquiry into the proposal.”

CNBC additionally contacted West Cumbria Mining for remark, however had not obtained a response forward of this story’s publication.

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