The UN’s new climate change chief has issued a thinly veiled criticism of the British government’s decision to approve its first coalmine in decades after calling for an end to the polluting fuel at international climate talks.
The decision on the Cumbria mine was due during the Cop27 climate conference in November, when the government pushed for an acceleration of a global coal phase-out and helped to organise a $20 billion deal for Indonesia to ditch coal. The planning decision was delayed but then green-lit just weeks afterwards by Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary.
Simon Stiell, the recently appointed executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said that it was important for countries’ language at international negotiations to be consistent with their actions at home.
“Actions must align with the rhetoric,” Stiell, a former minister of Grenada who has worked in the UK, said. “It’s the urgency of real action that keeps me up at night. We are fast running out of time. I want to spotlight not just where things aren’t being done, but where progress is being made. And there has been a lot of progress.”
Stiell added that though the outcome of November’s conference in Sharm el-Sheikh was “mixed”, the agreement of a new fund for countries hit by extreme weather was “a great success”. Despite criticism by Alok Sharma, the Cop26 president, that the deal left the goal to limit temperature rises to 1.5C on “life support”, Stiell said the target was still feasible and should not be abandoned.
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“The science tells us it’s still possible,” he said. “ The window is narrowing. The effort required will be extraordinary, but it’s still possible. As soon as 1.5C is taken off the table, I think we’re in very, very dangerous territory.” Meeting the goal would require annual emissions cuts steeper than the dramatic drop seen during the pandemic, he added.
A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesman said of the Cumbria site: “This coal will be used for the production of steel and would otherwise need to be imported. The mine seeks to be net zero in its operations and is expected to contribute to local employment and the wider economy.” A review about meeting the UK’s net zero target is expected to be published this month.
