After urging world to abandon coal, UK approves new coal mine

One year after convincing the world to consign coal to history, the UK on Wednesday approved a new coal mine.

Michael Gove, UK housing and communities secretary, approved the plan to open the coal mine in Cumbria.

The proposed mine would dig up cooking coal for steel production in the UK and across the world.

Coal is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels, producing almost twice the emissions of natural gas.

In defence of an outright violation of its own campaign against fossil fuels, supporters of the mine say it would create 500 jobs and cut coal importation.

The mine had initially received approval in 2020 but was halted in 2021 following the UK’s presidency of the Cop26.

This development is coming a month after the global climate change summit in Egypt and also at the same time as the UN biodiversity conference happening in Canada.

The new coal mine has been met with several objections, the top of which comes from Alok Sharma, COP26 president.

Mr Sharma in a tweet said, “opening a new coal mine will not only be a backward step for UK climate action but also damage the UK’s hard-won international reputation, through our @COP26 Presidency, as a leader in the global fight against climate change.”

During the UK’s presidency of COP, last year, Mr Sharma on several occasions cajoled and convinced state parties to defund coal projects.

On 16 September 2021, in his speech on Energy Action Day he said, “Because we want to avoid the worst effects of climate change, we must consign coal power to history. There’s really no question about it.”

He also noted in this speech that the UK planned to phase coal out entirely by the end of 2024.

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On 21 July 2021, in an interview with Reuters, Mr Sharma again said “I’ve been very clear that I want COP26 to be the COP where we consign coal power to history.”

He added that the UK Climate Change Committee said the mine would increase carbon emissions by 0.4Mt annually.

Interestingly, 85 per cent of coal produced would be for export, not domestic use as two major UK steel producers will not necessarily use much of the coal, partly due to its composition and sulphur content.