Cumbria coal mine should be a no go for new levelling up secretary
Greg Clark must think twice before giving the green light to the UK’s first new coal mine in decades. It would be indefensible on climate grounds, says Adam Vaughan
Environment
| Columnist
8 July 2022
A view of the former Woodhouse Colliery site where West Cumbria Mining are seeking approval to once again extract coal Getty Images
“Consign coal to history,” said UK prime minister Boris Johnson, responding to a landmark climate science report last year. A few months later at the COP26 climate summit, the world committed to accelerating the “phase-out” of coal power. Just last month, John Gummer, the head of the UK’s independent Climate Change Committee (CCC), said: “As far as the coal mine in Cumbria is concerned, let’s be absolutely clear, it is …