Inside the battle to stop coal

Green rotten limbs rise up from piles of coal on a pavement in central London. Around 20 activists gather next to the ghoulish spectacle holding banners and placards proclaiming that ‘coal is dead’ and urging ‘action’ on the climate crisis as morning traffic on the Strand slowly crawls by. Behind them, the Royal Courts of Justice looms large. Inside, lawyers are preparing for a potentially historic hearing with wide reaching impacts both in the United Kingdom, and across the globe.

In the High Court today, hearings will begin on two legal challenges to the Whitehaven Coal Mine in West Cumbria which was controversially granted planning permission by the then Secretary of State for Communities Michael Gove. The planning application for the mine, which would be the first new deep coal mine in over 30 years, was originally submitted to Cumbria County Council but, following sustained pressure from campaigners and the Climate Change Committee, the former Conservative government decided it would be the decision maker.

A 2021 planning inquiry into the mine saw the council voice its concerns over the highly contentious project which campaigners say would produce over 220 million tonnes CO2 equivalent - more than half of the UK’s total emissions for 2022. 99% of these emissions, Friends of the Earth claim, will be from the use of coal mined at the site.

The environmental organisation is one of two groups bringing the challenges to the mine. The other is the South Lakes Action on Climate Change - made up of local organisers and activists. Over the next three days the court will consider a number of grounds in the attempt to overturn the planning permission. Perhaps most pertinent among them is the assertion that the then Secretary of State wrongly ignored the emissions that would be released by the burning of the coal.

It is using only the emissions created through the mining process and ignoring the downstream emissions that West Cumbria Mining company, who are behind the plans to build the mine, have been able to state that it will be a “net-zero” project. Last month a Supreme Court judgment in the case of planning permission for an oil well in Surrey ruled that the environmental impact from burning of fossil fuels must be considered in planning applications for new extraction projects, not just the impacts of the emissions produced in extracting them.

The historic ruling in the case brought by local campaigner Sarah Finch and supported by Friends of the Earth led to the new Secretary of State, Labour’s Angela Rayner conceding last week that the it was an “error in law” to grant planning permission, announcing that Government lawyers would no longer be defending the legal challenges. West Cumbria Mining confirmed they will defend the challenge but did not reply to requests for comment.

Finch told Huck, “I’m overjoyed that our efforts in Surrey are helping to defeat this climate-wrecking coal mine in Cumbria. We always knew that our case was about more than just one site in Surrey. It’s good to see it having ripple effects across the fossil fuel industry.”

Rowan Smith, solicitor at Leigh Day who are acting for Friends of the Earth in the challenges, told Huck, “The law is now crystal clear: the climate change impact of the inevitable release of greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels must be assessed before they are extracted. That did not happen when planning permission was granted for the Whitehaven coal mine,” adding, “any claims that the mine would be net zero, which our client argues was wrong in any event given a misunderstanding by then Secretary of State as to how carbon credits could offset emissions, are now completely unsustainable.”

Judgment is not expected immediately, and more likely will be delivered in the weeks and months following the hearing. Unsuccessful parties can seek appeal to the Court of Appeal. The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government refused both to comment on whether they would be the ones to re-examine the planning application and to rule out granting planning permission to the mine at a later date if the legal challenges are successful.

Niall Toru, senior lawyer for Friends of the Earth told Huck, “The new Government must focus on growing the green economy, with priority given to areas like West Cumbria to ensure they get the investment, jobs and opportunities they so urgently need.”

Writing in Huck in March of last year local campaign Ruth Balogh conceded that there had been some local support for the mine. She stated, “the need for quality local jobs remains an understandable sticking point,” claiming that, following the closures of the county’s last coal mine in 1986 and “decades of underinvestment” communities like those in West Cumbria have “never quite recovered.”

Recent analysis by Friends of the Earth found that a local programme to ensure all Cumbrian homes are properly insulated could create just as many, if not more, jobs than offered by the mine. Campaigners claim the programme would have other benefits including keeping homes warm, lowering energy bills and reducing the amount of carbon unleashed into our atmosphere. The proposals remain uncosted but a 2023 House of Commons briefing found that the societal cost of cold or damp housing is around £15.4 billion.

The Local Government association has found there is potential for over 6,000 green jobs in Cumbria by 2030 (ten times the number created by the mine), in areas such as energy efficiency, solar power, offshore wind and low carbon heating. Among 600 of these would be in the area the mine is built.

Even if the challenge to the planning permission to the mine fails, there are still significant barriers in place to the operation of the mine, not least the need for the acquisition of a coal mining licence from the Coal Authority. WCM have applied for a licence from the authority but no decision has yet been given.

The Labour Party election manifesto 2024 included a pledge that they would issue no new licences would be granted. Last year, then Shadow Energy minister Ed Miliband stated, “A Labour government will leave no stone unturned in seeking to prevent the opening of this climate-destroying coal mine, and instead ensure we deliver the green jobs that people in Cumbria deserve.”

Despite the pledges in the manifesto and the strong words in opposition today the Department of Energy and Net Zero, of which Ed Miliband is now the Secretary of State, refused on multiple occasions to rule out granting the licence to WCM.

Elsewhere, changes in the steel market and the broader production process across Europe have further brought the need for the mine into question. It had previously been asserted that the industry would use coal “for decades to come” in blasting furnaces. Efforts here and across Europe to switch to cleaner ‘electric arc furnaces’ continue apace. The government’s Climate Change Committee have warned there may be no domestic use for the Whitehaven coal after 2035.

Friends of the Earth Lawyer Niall Toru agrees, “Justification for this polluting and unnecessary coal mine is rapidly evaporating,” adding, “this zombie coal mine would be a huge mistake for our environment, economy and international reputation. Rather than trying to breather new lids into a dying industry, coal should be left in the ground where it belongs given the climate emergency.”

The hearing of the legal challenge to the mine will run between 16th and 18th July.

West Cumbria Mining Company did not reply to request for comment

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