Gove criticised after approving first UK coal mine in 30 years

Michael Gove has approved the first new UK coal mine in three decades, less than two years after the scheme was cancelled over concerns about carbon emissions.

Plans for the Woodhouse Colliery near Whitehaven in West Cumbria have been highly controversial in Westminster, with critics saying the scheme will undermine the UK’s leadership on climate change.

The decision comes just weeks after the end of the UK’s presidency of the United Nations COP26 climate change conference, during which major global agreements were secured on phasing down the use of coal.

The colliery had been approved by Cumbria county council in 2020, before being suspended in early 2021 during the run-up to the conference, which was hosted by the UK in Glasgow.

Coal produced by the mine will not be used for energy generation but for steel production in the UK and abroad, with around 85% being exported.

But John Gummer, chair of the climate change committee, a government advisory body, said the decision was “absolutely indefensible”.

Shadow climate secretary Ed Miliband said the mine “sends a message around the world about this government’s climate hypocrisy, asking others to do as we say, not as we do”.

And Green party MP Caroline Lucas said the approval “confirms that the UK’s climate credibility on the world stage is in tatters”.

Simon Rawlinson, head of strategic research and insight at Arcadis, writing in Building today, said: “More investment in legacy fossil-fuel resources rather than low carbon technologies could slow down the net-zero transition and will certainly bake in future emissions unless carbon capture use and storage  technologies can come on stream soon.”

However supporters of the project, which include local MP and environment minister Trudy Harrison, say the colliery will create jobs and reduce the need to import coal.

The mine has committed to be net zero over the course of its lifetime, both in construction and operation.

In a letter on the decision, the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said the mine would have an “overall neutral effect on climate change”.

>>See also: Can investment in energy security be compatible with net zero?

It added that there was no evidence provided that any other coal mine in the world aspired to be net zero, and the scheme would be “much better placed to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions than from comparative mining operations around the world”.

Yesterday, the government announced plans to relax rules around building onshore wind farms, a move which some have speculated was timed as cover for the approval of the coal mine.

Business secretary Grant Shapps has also given the green light for the construction of the UK’s first power station that is equipped with technology to capture its carbon emissions.

The Keadby 3 Carbon Capture Power Station in the Humber, a gas power plant, is being developed  jointly by SSE Thermal and Equinor and will generate 910MW in electrical output.