Coal news and updates

Plans for £165M deep coal mine in Cumbria quashed in High Court

Campaign groups have been successful in bringing legal action against the previous government's granting of planning permission for a deep coal mining scheme in Cumbria.

The first new deep coal mine in the UK in 30 years, the Whitehaven scheme was intended to be an underground metallurgical, or ‘coking coal’, coal mine. Its developer West Cumbria Mining (WCM)’s plan was for the excavated coal to be used for steel production.

The previous government granted a development consent order (DCO) to the coal mine in 2022.

However, challenges to the decision to approve the mine at that time were submitted by Friends of The Earth (FOTE) and South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC). Both organisations claimed the government had not taken into consideration the environmental impact of burning extracted coal and focused only on running the facility.

The previous government’s granting of consent for the mine was also criticised by environmental groups and government adviser the Climate Change Committee.

In addition, in June, a Supreme Court landmark ruling found that the environmental impacts from burning fossil fuels must be considered in planning applications for new extraction projects, rather than just accounting for the impacts of the emissions produced in the extraction.

It was found that emissions from the Cumbria coal mine would exceed 220M.t of CO₂ equivalent.

As a result, the new Starmer government conceded that the DCO decision was unlawful and decided not to defend it in court. The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Angela Rayner consented to judgment on this ground on 10 July.

Despite the decision, the scheme’s developer, West Cumbria Mining (WCM) continued to defend the appeal.

FOTE and SLACC continued to challenge the appeal, with their case commencing mid July.

On 13 September, they were found to be successful on four grounds.

Firstly, that the previous Secretary of State had acted in breach of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) regulations by deciding that greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of Whitehaven coal were not a likely effect of the proposed development.

Secondly it was successful on grounds of substitution. WCM had argued that the mine would not cause any net increase in global GHG emissions because every tonne of coal mined in Cumbria would replace or “substitute” coal that would otherwise have been extracted elsewhere.

The conclusion that the proposal would have a neutral or beneficial effect on global GHG emissions was found to be incorrect.

The third ground was international Impact: It was found that the impact of a decision to grant planning permission for the coal mine on the United Kingdom’s leadership role in international action to address climate change had not been considered.

The fourth ground was offsetting: The High Court found that the DCO erred in law in the treatment of the issues relating to WCM’s proposed scheme for offsetting GHG residual, mitigated emissions from the coal mine itself.

In his judgement on 13 September, Justice Holgate said: "The assumption that the proposed mine would not produce a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions, or would be a net zero mine, is legally flawed."

FOTE senior lawyer Niall Toru said: “This mine should never have been given permission in the first place. The case against it is overwhelming: it would have huge climate impacts, its coal isn't needed and it harms the UK's international reputation on climate.”

Greenpeace UK chief scientist Doug Parr said: “Coalmining belongs in the past, so hopefully this is the last we’ll hear of it. The UK government now needs to ensure communities right across country aren’t left with choice of high-carbon jobs or no jobs.”