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COP26 President Alok Sharma has told the British government to think again about plans to open the United Kingdom’s first new coal mine in a generation, warning that going ahead would be bad for jobs and the climate.
On Tuesday night, the government delayed a decision on whether to give planning permission to the mine in Cumbria, northwest England. A decision had been due by November 8 — two days into the COP27 United Nations climate talks — but the deadline was postponed to December 8, according to a letter sent to campaign group Friends of the Earth.
Until now, Sharma has declined to take sides on the mine, calling it a “local issue.” But as the clock ticks down on his time as chair of the U.N. talks process, he decided to speak out.
“What I would say to ministers, and frankly, I have said to ministers, is that you have to consider what are you going to get as a result of a decision to go ahead,” Sharma told POLITICO in an interview.
West Cumbria Mining, the company applying to build the Woodhouse Colliery, says the project will create up to 2,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Sharma pointed to research from the Local Government Association, which found that up to 6,000 jobs could be created in Cumbria by 2030 if the county focused on green industries.
“If you have a look at the plans for this mine, as I understand a significant proportion of this coal that’s generated would be exported,” he said, meaning many supply-chain jobs would go offshore. “My personal opinion on this is that I think if this is about creating jobs, then, as the Local Government Association has said, you can create a lot more jobs doing this in green sectors.”
Sharma hands over the U.N. climate presidency on Sunday at the beginning of the conference in Egypt. With Prime Minister Rishi Sunak not yet committed to turning up to COP27, questions have been raised over the U.K.’s commitment to leading on climate change — including by Sharma himself.
Announcing Britain’s first new coal mine in 30 years two days after handing the reins to Egypt would harden those criticisms, said Friends of the Earth energy campaigner Tony Bosworth. “U.K. credibility on tackling the climate crisis is seriously at stake,” he said.
Sharma said the proposed coal project must also be assessed based “on whether we meet our climate goals or not. And [what] I would say to ministers, is please make decisions through the prism of the requirement to meet our legally binding commitments.”
The government’s independent advisers have said the mine would have an “appreciable impact” on the U.K.’s climate goals.
The decision rests with Secretary of State for Leveling Up Michael Gove. His department did not respond when asked to comment on Sharma’s warning.
A year after hosting the COP26 summit in Glasgow, the U.K. government’s commitment to climate efforts has come under scrutiny amid concerns from campaigners that Sunak is less committed to the COP agenda than his predecessors. These fears grew after POLITICO reported the U.K. had missed the deadline for paying more than $300 million to two key U.N. climate funds for developing countries.
Sharma said he understood “the concerns and the frustrations that have been raised” over the missing payments, adding, “It’s going to be important for the U.K. for other developed countries to deliver on the finance commitments that they have made.”
He cited “changes to administration” as one of the reasons the U.K. had failed to deliver its promised funding on time. “What I can say is that I’m personally pushing hard to make sure that we unlock the finance to deliver on the commitments that we’ve made,” he said.
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