The government’s decision in January 2021 to wave through a new coal mine in Whitehaven, Cumbria, was greeted with howls of protest. Climate scientists called it an “extraordinary and highly reckless” move, 80 environmental groups urged the prime minister to reconsider, and the Liberal Democrat leader called for the former business secretary Alok Sharma to resign as president of November’s COP26, the UN’s climate change conference.
The current business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, has admitted there is a “slight tension” between the net-zero goal and the opening of the first new deep coal mine in 30 years – an eye-watering understatement, given the government’s own climate change committee has said the new mine is incompatible with the UK’s already too modest climate targets.
On 10 February, Cumbria County Council announced it will reconsider its decision to approve the coal mine. Regardless of whether this leads to the mine’s eventual rejection, the council’s move doesn’t address the underlying issues that made opening the mine an appealing prospect in the first place. Without a national and local industrial strategy that provides decent, secure work in low-carbon sectors, polluting projects will continue to be seen as a source of badly needed jobs.
