Britain approves first new coal mine in decades

LONDON - Britain on Wednesday approved its first new deep coal mine in decades to produce the high-polluting fuel for use in steelmaking, a project that critics say will hinder the UK’s climate targets.

The Woodhouse Colliery, to be developed by West Cumbria Mining in north-west England, seeks to extract coking coal which is used in the steel industry rather than for electricity generation.

It is expected to create around 500 jobs.

The project, unveiled in 2014, has come under criticism from the British government’s own independent climate advisory panel as well as climate activists and organisations, including Greta Thunberg and Greenpeace.

The majority of the coal produced is expected to be exported to Europe. Planning documents show that more than 80 per cent of the coal the mine will produce annually is forecast to, after five years, be sent to an export terminal on England’s east coast.

Greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal – such as in steel and power plants – are the single biggest contributor to climate change, and weaning countries off coal is considered vital to achieving global climate targets.

Britain has passed laws requiring it to bring all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.

Earlier this year, the chair of Britain’s independent Climate Change Committee, Mr John Gummer said the Woodhouse project was “absolutely indefensible”.

The coal mine, the size of roughly 60 soccer fields or 23 hectares, would take two years to build at a cost estimated in 2019 of £165 million. The mine is proposed to be operated for 50 years.

It will supply steelmakers in Britain and western Europe and employ just over 500 workers when it reaches peak production after five years, with more than 80 per cent of them expected to work underground in coal production.

Britain, the cradle of the industrial revolution, once employed 1.2 million people at nearly 3,000 collieries. Its last deep-pit mine closed in 2015. REUTERS