UK Government rejects plans for new coal mine due to climate change
The UK has decided to stop plans for a new opencast coal mine because it would “adversely impact upon measures to limit climate change”.
The UK has decided to stop plans for a new opencast coal mine because it would “adversely impact upon measures to limit climate change”.
The application for the new mine had initially been approved by the local council in Northumberland, but was ‘called-in’ for review by the Minister for Local Government, Sajid Javid.
On Friday, Mr Javid announced his refusal of the coal mine citing the need to prevent dangerous climate change as one of the main considerations.
The project, called Highthorn, was to be located near Druridge Bay in northeast England. It had the potential to extract up to 3 million tonnes of coal over 250 hectares of land.
In a letter to The Banks Group which made the application the Secretary of State said that “the effects of carbon in the atmosphere would have a cumulative effect in the long term, (and) given that cumulative effect, and the importance to which the Government affords combatting climate change, he concludes that overall the scheme would have an adverse effect on Green House Gas emissions and climate change of very substantial significance”.
The Secretary of State made the announcement on Twitter
Friends of the Earth, which mobilised thousands of campaigners to oppose the scheme, said the decision was “a significant victory for local residents and the climate”.
Campaigner Rose Dickinson, continued: “It means an important step forward has been taken in ending the era of fossil fuels”.
“This is the first coal mine ever to be rejected in the UK because of climate change impacts – a vindication for everyone who has been calling for fossil fuels to be left in the ground”.
The UK was one of the first countries to announce a plan to phase-out all coal-fired power plants, which it intends to do by 2025.
The country also has strict targets to reduce carbon emissions under the Paris Agreement, but also by its own legally binding Climate Change Act. The legislation commits the UK to reducing carbon emissions to below 80 percent of 1990 levels by 2050.
Photo Credit: Bert Kaufmann/Flickr
