High Peak eco group protest against governments coal plans

Members of Sustainable Hayfield held a short protest earlier in the month to show their anger at the government’s decision to sanction development of a new deep coal mine in West Cumbria.

Sustainable Hayfield’s chair, Cath Moss, said “This decision makes a mockery of the government’s professed intent to achieve net zero by 2050. The International Energy Agency has declared there should be no new developments of fossil fuel resources, if governments are serious about climate change."

The government has approved the UK's first new deep coal mine for 30 years.

It will be in Whitehaven and is expected to create 500 jobs at the mine and an additional 1,500 for the surrounding area.

Coal will be dug out to power steel factories and the council has granted permission for miners to dig until 2049.

This goes against the national climate targets which state steel making should not use coal after 2035.

Cath said: “The government’s own independent Climate Change Committee wrote a while ago to the government confirming this mine will increase global emissions and have an appreciable impact on the UK’s legally binding carbon budgets.

“It seems the government is just walking away from the science, and accommodating the fossil fuel industry – again.

“In doing so the government is abandoning its own rhetoric on climate change, and undermining its international reputation in this field, which it has sought to champion.”

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