UK Government's Own Documents Disprove The "Need" For New Cumbria Coal Mine For Steelmaking

Previously unseen documents have emerged that appear to contradict the government’s case for a new coalmine in Cumbria. When Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, approved plans to build the Woodhouse Colliery near Whitehaven in December 2022, he said the UK would need the coal in order to carry on making steel.

But the newly revealed documents, drafted around the same time at the then Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), say the opposite. According to these papers, officials predict with “high certainty” that technology such as electric arc furnaces will lead to the successful decarbonisation of UK steel production by 2035.

“This new information blows a gaping hole in the government’s case for supporting the proposed Cumbria coalmine,” said Tony Bosworth of Friends of the Earth. “When Michael Gove approved the mine 14 months ago, he claimed it was needed because there was huge uncertainty over UK steel’s ability to decarbonise over the next 15 years. “Now we discover that at the same time, government officials had ‘high certainty’ about the industry’s move away from coal.”

The documents were disclosed to Friends of the Earth by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), the successor to BEIS, as part of legal action the environmental campaign group is taking against the government’s climate plan. Written in preparation for the government’s 2023 carbon budget delivery plan, the “risk tables” analyse potential threats to the policies in the plan, published last March.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/02/government-documents-said-to-blow-gaping-hole-in-its-case-for-cumbrian-coalmine