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Countering fake news in the Senedd

We’re actively setting the record straight when fake news about coal is spread through public figures, social media, or the press. The rise of populist politics and politicians tend to drive statements that are don’t entirely match the evidence, but may win them some votes. Sometimes this is due to poor research, at other times it can be more calculated. Either way, the danger of this is that if those politicians are eventually elected, they will then need to pass policies based on the fake news if they want to keep those voters. This can lead to unnecessary, and sometimes damaging, policies that harms those very voters.

In a Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee meeting for the Welsh Senedd (parliament) on 04/06/2025, some falsehoods were voiced around coal which we’re keen to debunk:

“I just believe that anybody living within a community with a coal tip, as long as they knew that there was no further mining taking place, I cannot see how there would be an issue with the removal...”

Coal is never just lying in a neat heap on top of a coal tip – it’s mixed in with soil and rocks, and will always require mining to extract and filter it for the market. The only live proposal to extract coal from a coal tip is being strongly challenged by a determined group of people living locally to those coal tips, called the Friends of Sirhowy Valley Country Park. They oppose the local dust, noise, and disruption that would be caused by the coal extraction.

“We're very lucky in the fact that some of the coal mined—but we're not talking about mining, we're just talking about finding it in terms of remediation—burns at a higher temperature and so burns very cleanly.”

Anthracite is a high-carbon content coal which, when burned, emits a high amount of CO2 but is low in other pollutants. It is an expensive and relatively scarce grade of coal – as such, it’s not what would be widely discarded within coal tips. However, coal mined from the most recently closed opencast coal mine, Ffos-y-fran, was thermal coal – which had to stop being burned to generate electricity because the European Court of Justice ruled the toxic nitrogen oxides it emitted were too high. Cleaner imported coal had to be used at Aberthaw power station instead. Even after Merthyr Ltd invested £10 million in machinery so its coal could be burned at the Port Talbot Steelworks, doing so frequently made the steelworks exceed air pollution limits.

“I politely ask the Member from where she wants the 3.4 million tonnes of coal required in the UK annually to come from...if her answer is 'abroad', to explain how such a position is in the best interests of climate change, our carbon footprint, and Wales.”

Although this is phrased as a question, it implies that it would be better for the climate if the UK extracted as much of the 3.4 million tonnes of coal as possible here rather than importing it. Firstly, the UK also exported 731 thousand tonnes of coal in the same year, reducing the actual amount required in the UK. Secondly, this demand will now be much lower with the closure of the UK’s last coal power station in October 2024, and the decarbonisation of Port Talbot steelworks which started mid-2024. Regarding remaining demand, a recent High Court decision confirmed that extracting coal within the UK (through any means) would not significantly reduce coal mined abroad – so it would increase the global supply and use of coal. Flooding the UK market with more coal also discourages industry from investing in using alternative processes that cuts coal out, keeping up demand for the number one fossil fuel driving climate chaos today.

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Published 03. 07. 2025

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