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It would be “hypocritical” for the UK to open a new coal mine, “send the wrong message”, and make a “mockery” of climate action, developing country activists and experts involved in global climate negotiations have said.
A decision on whether to go ahead with a new coal mine in Cumbria is expected by the UK government as early as Wednesday.
Many Tory MPs are in favor of the mine, which would produce coking coal for steelmaking, despite expert advice that most of its coal would be for export and increase greenhouse gas emissions rather than displacing coal from other areas.
International concern is growing over a possible green light for a new mine. Experts said it would damage the UK’s credibility at a critical juncture for global climate action.
Yamid Degnet, director of climate justice at the Open Society Foundations, said: “This [mooted coalmine] He is deeply concerned given the UK’s strong stance on ambition [in emissions cuts] and criticism of retreat by others.”
Paul Bledsoe, a former climate adviser to Bill Clinton’s White House, now an analyst in Washington DC, added, “Cumbria is known around the world as the home of the magnificent Lake District where romantic poets such as Wordsworth launched modern environmental awareness.” “It makes no sense to reintroduce coal mining at this moment of climate crisis. It can only cause other nations to question Britain’s climate commitment.
At the COP27 UN climate summit last month, developing countries were of the view that rich countries were being hypocritical by continuing to use and develop fossil fuel resources while urging poorer countries to abandon them. The result was a fragmented conference and partial agreement that failed to produce the progress on limiting global warming that the UK, US, EU and other rich nations had hoped for.
Participants in the UN climate talks said that if the UK continued with the mine, it would further inflame these tensions.
A person closely involved in Cop 27 said: “We are past the point where we have to keep the coal open. We at Cop saw the erosion of UK and EU and US power because ‘we don’t do as we’re told’. This will only undermine efforts to accelerate the transition away from coal.”
Going ahead with the new mine will reinforce a damaging impression of rich world hypocrisy, added Tasnim Essop, executive director of Climate Action Network International, a leading NGO voice. “Just three weeks ago at Cop27, the UK government presented itself as the champion [the Paris agreement target of keeping global heating to] 1.5C and also criticized some major developing countries for hindering progress on ambition, demanding they do more,” she said. “The approval of this new coal mine proves once again that the UK is all about posturing, double standards and broken promises. They point fingers and shift blame.”
Activists from developing countries added their voices. Lorraine Chiponda of the Africa Climate Movement said: “Investment in new coal projects is a mockery of the African communities who bear the brunt of climate disasters in Africa. This is not the time to go back on the commitments and progress made towards phasing out coal. We urge the UK to act responsibly and phase out coal.”
Andrés Gómez of activist group Senset Agua Viva (Friends of the Earth Colombia) said: “While countries in the Global South like Colombia are making ambitious transition-only plans to phase out fossil fuels, the UK is letting everyone down. A Direction to More Fossil Fuels.”
Omar Elmawi of the Kenyan organization Muslims for Human Rights said: “Granting new coal mining permits is not only hypocritical but sends the wrong message to the world at large and developing countries in particular. The world is literally on fire and they are adding fuel to this inferno. They need to lead the dialogue on solutions and how the world can move forward from this climate crisis by making a community-led leap towards renewable energy and avoiding emissions. We hope they will see sense and prevent this tragedy.
Steve Mel Diez of the Care for Environment/CAN group in Cameroon pointed out that the UK made coal a key issue in its presidency of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow last year. “If a power like the UK, which was among the leaders in the fight against coal, decides to reinvest in opening up. [a coalmine]It will mean that he has not fought for anything for a long time,” he said.
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