The decision to approve a new coal mine in West Cumbria was made unlawfully, the UK’s new government has admitted, as the carbon emissions from eventually burning the coal should have been taken into account.
It follows a ruling last month when the Supreme Court quashed another fossil fuel project – an oilfield at Horse Hill in Surrey – on the same grounds.
The coking coal mine in West Cumbria was approved under the last government in 2022 by Michael Gove, who ran the levelling up department. But a legal challenge by campaigners was due to be heard in the High Court next week.
On Thursday, the rebranded Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, now run by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, confirmed it was dropping its defence of the Whitehaven Coal Mine, in the wake of the ruling over Horse Hill.
It said there was an “error of law” in the 2022 decision to greenlight it.
Friends of the Earth climate co-ordinator, Jamie Peters, said: ”We’re delighted the government agrees that planning permission for this destructive, polluting and unnecessary coal mine was unlawfully granted and that it should be quashed.
“We hope the court agrees.”
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The site in Cumbria where the controversial coking coal mine was going to be based
Mr Peters added: “The new government must now ensure that areas like West Cumbria get the jobs and investment they urgently need so that people living there can reap the benefits of building a clean, green and affordable future.”
Meanwhile, former local Tory MP for Penrith, Mark Jenkinson, said on X the government was “failing West Cumbria from week one”.
Campaigners in both cases argue that any assessment of the environmental impact needs to consider not just the emissions from getting the stuff out of the ground, but from burning it too.
The industry says that’s not necessary because those so-called “downstream” emissions are factored into other assessments.
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The case will likely still go ahead if West Cumbria Mining, the other defendant and mine developer, decides to fight it. Sky News has contacted it for comment.
In either case, it is the High Court that will then decide whether to quash the original decision. That wouldn’t mean the project had been cancelled, but that the decision had to made again by the secretary of state with all the correct information about the emissions that it would cause.
Labour will not be inclined to grant permission. It has long pledged to end any new licences for fossil fuel projects if it were elected.
Since Mr Gove approved Whitehaven in 2022, Tata confirmed plans to close the Port Talbot steelworks, so the intended market for the coking coal became less certain.