The UK government has approved the construction of a coal mine in the northern English county of Cumbria to produce coke for the country's steel industry.

It is the first new coal mine on the island in more than thirty years.

West Cumbria Mining Ltd.

will invest more than £165m in the port city of Whitehaven.

Locally, there is overwhelming support for the project, which aims to create 500 jobs in the underdeveloped region near the Lake District.

The approval had been expected, but had been postponed several times due to changes in government.

The decision has outraged environmental and climate groups, who point to the UK's statutory target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The only Green MP, Caroline Lucas, has criticized the mine as a "climate crime against humanity".

The Liberal Democrats said the approval was "ridiculous and terrible".

Labour's climate spokesman Ed Miliband called coal mining "not a solution to the energy crisis".

The new mining is a nail in the coffin for Britain's claim to be a leader in climate policy.

Minister Michael Gove based his decision on a recommendation from the independent Planning Inspectorate.

The mine will produce coal for steel mills that would otherwise have to be imported.

It will thus "have an overall neutral effect on climate change" because the amount of coal used will be "roughly the same with or without the mine," writes the planning commission.

West Cumbria Mining was pleased with the decision.

You could now start building the “world's first net-zero mine”.

This means that there should be no net CO2 emissions from the operation of coal production.

The mine is to produce 3.1 million tons of hard coal per year and could thus cover a good third of the steel industry's needs.

Australian mining investment company ERM Capital is behind West Cumbria Mining.

Up until this spring, Britain was getting about 40 percent of the coal for the steel mills from Russia.

After the attack on Ukraine, Tata Steel and British Steel stopped importing from Russia and are buying coal from America.

The kingdom has almost completely phased out coal-fired power generation.

The share of coal power fell from around 40 percent in 2012 to less than 2 percent.

The country's total coal consumption has fallen from around 3 to 0.2 exajoules per year - that is only a tenth of the consumption in Germany.