Labour is opposing the UK’s first new deep coal mine in 30 years. Now Robert Jenrick must do the same

It would signal to the world that the UK is utterly duplicitous when claiming to be tackling the carbon emissions which are causing horrific impacts across the globe, writes Donnachadh McCarthy

Conservative MP says ‘common sense has prevailed’, while campaigners say ‘coal should be consigned to the history books’

The destructive scale of the UK’s proposed first new deep coal mine for 30 years is staggering. Its potential lifetime carbon emissions of 420 million tons would be more than the entire 2019 UK economy’s domestic carbon emissions of 350m tons.  

Robert Jenrick, the Secretary of State for Local Government, now faces a moral dilemma over this proposed huge new UK Woodhouse Colliery coal mine, which will not only determine the future of coalmining in the UK but whether the UK will have any modicum of integrity as the host government for the crucial COP 26 climate summit next year in Glasgow. 

If the UK government gives the go-ahead for the proposed new Cumbrian Woodhouse Colliery, it would signal to the world that the UK is utterly duplicitous when claiming to be tackling the carbon emissions already causing horrific impacts across the globe.