While the superstitious may still see Friday the 13th as an inauspicious date, Friday 13 September 2024 will certainly go down in the history of the climate movement as a great day. For, on that day, the High Court ruled that the approval given by the Tory government, in December 2022, for the opening a new coalmine near Whitehaven in west Cumbria, was illegal. Had it gone ahead, this mine would have been the UK’s first new coalmine in 30 years! Significantly, the Tory government had held back from announcing its decision until after COP26 in Glasgow – as the government’s own climate adviser had said it would increase CO2 emissions!
Yet any increase in CO2 emissions was ignored by Michael Gove, then the Secretary for Levelling-Up, Housing and Communities, when he gave his approval just after COP26 had ended. The Chair of the government’s advisory Climate Change Committee immediately condemned the decision, saying it was “absolutely indefensible.” While Ed Miliband, then Labour’s Shadow Climate Secretary, said that the proposed mine was “no solution to the energy crisis”, and stated that – despite claims by West Cumbria Mining – the mine would “not offer secure, long-term jobs.”
Once Gove’s decision had been announced, local climate activists wasted no time in making it clear that opposition to this climate-busting coalmine would not just continue, but would be stepped up – regardless of the Tories’ decision. So, on Saturday 10 December, 2022 – just days after the government had approved the mine – a large group gathered at the site of the proposed mine to show their determination to resist this climate crime. Amongst those present were members of XR North Lakes, XR South Lakes, Coal Action Network, South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC), and Friends of the Earth (FoE).
However, behind the scenes, some activists had been busy preparing the scientific case against the mine ever since 2019 – especially members of SLACC, such as Maggie Mason and Henry Adams (to name but two), who gathered and presented detailed scientific facts to challenge the mine – including the ‘misinformation’ issued by the Australian hedge fund behind the mine, and which local Tory politicians were eagerly helping to spread. As time went on, SLACC – along with FoE – began gathering the evidence necessary for mounting legal challenges, on the basis that the approval was illegal because it broke the government’s own climate change legislation on emissions.
In the meantime, other activists began organising monthly Speakers’ Corners, at the site of the proposed mine. At these events – which took place throughout 2023 – activists gathered to hear a range of speakers present convincing arguments against the mine. Some of those speakers included Professor Julia Steinberger (of the IPCC & Lausanne University), Professor Mike Berners-Lee (Lancaster University) and Sarah Finch (of the Weald Action Group); members of such groups as the Greener Jobs Alliance, the Pont Valley Campaign, Lancashire’s Anti-Fracking Nanas, and Coal Action Network; and various trade union speakers. A ‘surprise’ speaker was Chris Packham – who just turned up with a Channel 4 film crew!
At the same time, others regularly used the Letters’ columns of local papers to challenge the ‘mine myths’ constantly being spread by Tory supporters of the mine, such as stating that the coke would be used by the British steel industry and would thus cut down on imports – a ‘myth’ they continue to peddle to the present day, even after both British Steel and Tata Steel stated early on that they wouldn’t be using it! Local door-knocking and canvassing also often took place after the Speakers’ Corners; while, especially during Bank Holidays, others arranged banner-drops, along motorways and other main roads, to get across to in-coming tourists the clear message that this was definitely ‘No Time for a Coal Mine!’ Others ‘decorated’ the offices of hard-right Tory Mark Jenkinson (at the time the MP for Workington – now fortunately unemployed since 4 July!) who remains a vociferous (though dishonest!) supporter of the mine. Sadly, court cases are currently pending against the activists who allegedly stuck posters on the windows of Jenkinson’s office.
Finally, after 5 years of painstaking work, fundraising, hearings, and court cases, SLACC and FoE won their cases, with the result being that the mine is almost as “bereft of life” as Monty Python’s famous dead parrot. The very small element of caution is because the mining company could appeal to the Supreme Court – if only to force SLACC and FoE to spend more time and money defending their case against the mine. Plus, there’s the very remote possibility that Starmer’s government might grant approval to a new proposal, if the CO2 emissions are factored in. However, given the Labour government’s early decision to drop any legal defence of the coalmine, and its other recent climate decisions, this is very unlikely.
But, whatever happens, stopping the coalmine was only ever one part of a campaign for green jobs for Cumbria. What campaigners now want are renewable and cheap energy projects, and a massive home insulation programme: both hugely important in an area that has a level of fuel poverty higher than the national average. The campaign to get such developments is already underway. On the day the High Court announced its judgement, an ‘Open Letter’ was sent to Cumbria’s newly-elected Labour MPs, and to the local media. After welcoming the High Court’s decision, the Open Letter went on to call on Cumbria’s MPs to start putting pressure on the government to:
“take immediate steps to put GB Energy funding into Cumbria to
- enable a rapid transition to clean and cheap energy
- the creation of thousands of good local jobs that would come with that transition, and
- investment in training programmes that will equip local workers with the skills needed to grow those green sectors of the economy”
Amongst those signing that Open Letter were individuals such as George Monbiot and Julia Steinberger; and organisations like Earth First!, Greener Jobs Alliance and XR North Lakes.
A good starting point for getting such a green future would be for Ed Miliband to use the findings of Cumbria Action for Sustainability’s Report of 2021 – The Potential for green jobs in Cumbria – produced in conjunction with Green House Think Tank and Opal Research & Consulting. In total, around 9,000 net jobs could be created during a 15-year transition period, and 3,800 in the long term.
In addition, those involved with this ‘Green Future for Cumbria’ campaign are preparing a national petition to put as much pressure on the government as possible; to make this as effect as possible, local councillors will soon be meeting with activists to firm up the campaign. One ‘easy’ win would be for the government to approve the application for a large solar farm in west Cumbria. This would create a 150MW solar-based Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) in Cumbria – with this project also including“considerable areas for landscape planting and ecological enhancements”, whilst also allowing agricultural grazing to continue, via the use of ground-mount solar panels. This is a method known as agrivoltaics, which has been used in some of the world’s largest solar projects. There would also be a £500,000 benefit fund which, subject to receiving planning consents, would be utilised for “local community enhancement” As is becoming increasingly obvious, solar seems to offer the best – and quickest – hope for dealing with global boiling.
Art Book Review Books Capitalism China Climate Emergency Conservative Government Conservative Party COVID-19 Economics EcoSocialism Elections Europe Fascism Film Film Review France Gaza Imperialism Israel Italy Keir Starmer Labour Party Long Read Marxism Palestine pandemic Protest Russia Solidarity Statement Trade Unionism Ukraine United States of America War