Fury has been sparked as the first new UK coal mine in decades is approved, despite environmental campaigners naming it a ‘misguided and deeply damaging mistake’.
Rishi Sunak’s government has been accused of ‘trashing our country’s reputation as a world lead in cutting emissions’ after giving the green light to the project in Cumbria.
The move comes one year after the UK hosted COP26, where British officials urged other world leaders to ‘consign coal to history’.
But the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has insisted the coal will be used for the production of steel and not for power generation.
Meanwhile, the planning inspector who recommended the site’s approval claimed the development would ‘have an overall neutral effect on climate change’.
Stephen Normington wrote that the amount of coal used in steel making would be ‘broadly the same’ with or without the mine.
Levelling-Up Secretary Michael Gove granted planning permission for what will be the first new site in the UK in 30 years, following years of delay.
Known as Woodhouse Colliery, it will create around 500 jobs, according to supporters.
A statement from the DLUHC said: ‘The mine seeks to be net zero in its operations and is expected to contribute to local employment and the wider economy.’
But Labour shadow climate secretary Ed Miliband said it is ‘no solution to the energy crisis, it does not offer secure, long-term jobs, and it marks this government giving up on all pretence of climate leadership’.
The move also threatens to anger some Conservative MPs, who have spoken out before to oppose the plan.
Friends of the Earth described it as an ‘appalling decision’ that will damage the fight against the climate crisis while not replacing Russian coal.
Campaigner Tony Bosworth said it ‘flies in the face of all the evidence’.
Meanwhile, The Liberal Democrats said ‘this decision cancels out all the progress Britain has made on renewable energy’.
‘Rishi Sunak’s Government is trashing our country’s reputation as a world lead in cutting emissions’, environment spokesman Tim Farron said.
‘He does not represent the views of the public who want green, clean projects.’
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