The website of the proposed mine in Whitehaven, UK Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
The UK is ready to get its first new deep coal mine in three a long time after the federal government authorised plans for a mission in Cumbria, regardless of widespread opposition on environmental grounds.
The Woodhouse Colliery in Whitehaven will produce about 2.8 million tonnes of coking coal a yr, for use by the metal trade within the UK and past, in response to the developer, West Cumbria Mining.
But the mission has confronted fierce opposition from scientists and environmental campaigners, who argue the UK ought to be investing in inexperienced metal applied sciences reasonably than supporting a brand new fossil gas scheme.
Why has the federal government authorised the mine?
It has been underneath strain from native Conservative MPs to permit the mine for years, with supporters arguing it’s going to deliver round 500 much-needed jobs to the world. But it shied away from making the choice whereas the UK was main world local weather talks, a job that formally ended final month.
After months of delay, Michael Gove, the secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities, lastly granted approval for the mine on 7 December, explaining he was glad the mission would “have an overall neutral effect on climate change”. That is regardless of evaluation suggesting the scheme would produce an estimated 400,000 tonnes of greenhouse gasoline emissions a yr.
Can the mine actually be net-zero emissions?
West Cumbria Mining has mentioned “the mine seeks to be net zero in its operations”, which it’s going to obtain by minimising emissions from manufacturing of the coal and by buying carbon offsets. But it has solely accounted for a tiny fraction of the complete emissions that will probably be generated as soon as the coal is lifted from the bottom, Lord Deben, the chair of the Climate Change Committee (CCC), advised the BBC. “They don’t count the burning of the coal,” he mentioned. “We have no way of ensuring that is net zero.” The CCC is the federal government’s impartial local weather adviser.
Does the UK want extra coking coal?
The UK produces round 7.4 million tonnes of metal yearly utilizing coking coal, primarily from two corporations: British Steel and Tata. British Steel has mentioned it won’t use coal from the Cumbria mission as a result of its sulphur content material will probably be too excessive, whereas Tata has mentioned it could use some coal from the mine, however in the end plans to shift to greener manufacturing strategies over the following decade.
In truth, it’s estimated that solely between 10 and 20 per cent of the coal extracted from Woodhouse Colliery will probably be used for steelmaking within the UK.
The relaxation will probably be exported – and doubtless to not different nations in Europe, the place steelmakers are dealing with comparable pressures to chop the carbon footprint of their operations. On the continent, steelmakers are more and more investing in non-fossil methods of constructing metal, corresponding to by utilizing hydrogen or electrical furnaces. In Sweden, for instance, Hybrit is manufacturing metal made utilizing “green” hydrogen, which is generated utilizing renewable electrical energy.
Will the mine have a cloth influence on emissions?
The authorities argues the proposed improvement “will have a broadly neutral effect on the global release of greenhouse gas emissions from coal used in steel making”. In truth, the CCC mentioned the mine would improve UK carbon dioxide emissions by 400,000 tonnes a yr, and as soon as the emissions from burning the extracted coal are taken under consideration, the equal to 220 million tonnes of CO2 will probably be emitted over the course of its 25-year life.
It is true that it is a drop within the ocean in contrast with the metal trade’s general emissions, which account for round 8 per cent of worldwide emissions.
But even when the emissions from the mine itself are marginal, many local weather consultants are nervous that by approving this, the UK authorities has undermined its worldwide credibility as a local weather chief.
As host of COP26 in Glasgow final yr, the UK known as for nations to “consign coal to history” and lobbied nations to decide to phase-out plans for the fossil gas. Approving a brand new coal mine on house soil will probably be seen as hypocrisy, say researchers, and should embolden different nations to increase the lifetime of their very own coal industries.
“Developing countries such as India will view this decision as extremely hypocritical, and this move will do a disservice to the UK’s history of pushing out coal from its power system,” mentioned Sugandha Srivastav on the University of Oxford in an announcement.
Paul Elkins at University College London mentioned the approval “trashes the UK’s reputation as a global leader on climate action and opens it up to well-justified charges of hypocrisy – telling other countries to ditch coal while not doing so itself”.
Can the mine be stopped?
Despite successful planning approval from the federal government, some local weather consultants doubt the mine will ever develop into operational.
There will virtually actually be a authorized problem in opposition to this week’s determination, with NGOs and regulation teams like ClientEarth actively scrutinising the choice for potential grounds for enchantment, New Scientist understands.
A basic election might additionally scupper the mine’s prospects. The Liberal Democrats and Labour are each against its improvement, with Labour’s shadow local weather and web zero secretary Ed Miliband saying the choice exhibits the federal government is “giving up on all pretence of climate leadership”. A Labour win within the subsequent basic election might cease the mine earlier than operations ever get underneath manner.
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