The British Government gives the green light to the first coal mine in 30 years

The Conservative government of

has given the green light to the first coal mine in the last 30 years in the United Kingdom (in the Cumbria region), despite recommendations against it by the Committee on Climate Change and the former president of the COP26 Alok Sharma and the frontal rejection of the Labor and Liberal-Democrat opposition.

"The decision to open a new coal mine sends the completely wrong message to the world and amounts to an own goal," Alok Sharma told The Observer.

"Over the last three years, the UK has tried to persuade other nations that it is time for coal to be history. If we want to limit the rise in temperatures to 1.5 degrees, we must say goodbye to the world's most polluting energy source.

Conservative John Gummer, who heads the inter-ministerial Climate Change Committee, called the decision "absolutely indefensible."

In its latest report, and despite the commitment to "zero emissions" acquired by Boris Johnson, the committee warns that there are

promoted by the Government.

mine

is expected to produce 400,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year, the equivalent of 200,000 petrol cars on the road.

It will be possible to extract up to 2.8 million tons of bituminous coal per year, mainly for the production of coke and the manufacture of steel.

The project was finally approved on Wednesday by Michael Gove, a former environment minister and current "economic equalization" minister, as part of measures to

.

The coal mine will involve an investment of 190 million euros and will create 500 jobs in Cumbria, where, however, it faces significant local resistance.

The official report maintains that the mine will have

and that its opening is compatible with the objective of "zero emissions" in 2050, since it will cease its activity in 2049. Several environmental groups have expressed without However, his intention to take the government's decision to court, considering that it is incompatible with his own climate policy.

"Opening a coal mine in the UK right now is a serious economic, environmental and political mistake," said Nicholas Stern, author of the landmark 2006 report on the economics of climate change. in technology of the last century. Environmentally, it is helping to increase our emissions. And politically it is equivalent to losing the global authority that the United Kingdom had on the most pressing issue of the moment."

The announcement of the first coal mine in three decades comes three years after the UK celebrated its first week without fossil fuel since the start of the Industrial Revolution in 1882, when the Holborn Viaduct thermoelectric power station opened in London. .

At the height of the Industrial Revolution, the country had more than a thousand mines that produced

.

The last underground mine at Kellingley Collinery, in the north of England, closed in 2015.

Coal currently accounts for barely 5% of the energy pie of the British Isles, compared to

,

and

.

The energy crisis generated by the war in Ukraine has, however, forced the reactivation and prolongation of the life of at least half a dozen thermal power plants.

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• Rishi Sunak