Over 30 Welsh NGOs and businesses have signed a letter to Welsh Minister Julie James and Deputy Minister Lee Waters, demanding they draw a line in the sand and announce ban on any further coal mines on Welsh soil. The letter was sent to the Welsh Government on 11th October 2023.
The Welsh Government already has policies against new and extended coal mines but these are caveated and confusing. The renewed call for a clear coal mining ban comes less than a month after existing policies would have failed to stop a recent bid to reopen the shuttered Glan Lash opencast coal mine in Carmarthenshire. The coal mining company, Bryn Bach Coal Ltd, applied to double the size of the coal mine over six years. Controversially, Carmarthenshire County Council’s Planning Officer advised Councillors in the Officer’s Report, and at the Planning Hearing, that "Overall, it is considered that the proposals would largely meet the criteria of the coal policy" (p66). Ultimately, the application was rejected on the grounds of local ecological impacts—but it has exposed the weakness of existing policies, with the Planning Officer adding that it is “difficult to know for certain how to interpret the coal policy” (p66).
The open letter coincides with the first anniversary of Scotland’s announcement of its own de facto ban on coal mining, in October 2022. Daniel Therkelsen, campaigner at Coal Action Network says “The Welsh Government faces a choice—align itself with the backtracking and flip-flopping of the UK Government, or regain its international leadership position alongside Scotland, as a progressive country of confidence and stability for green industry to thrive.
Welsh Minister for Climate Change, Julie James, wrote a letter to the UK Government in October 2021, lamenting the current policy situation, which “results in both the developer and the Coal Authority committing significant resources respectively to preparing and determining applications”. NGOs and businesses that signed the open letter to Ministers Julie James and Deputy Minister Lee Waters are calling for a clear coal ban that clears up the confusion Carmarthenshire Council identified and the caveats that creates uncertainty and potentially wasted resources for coal mining companies, such as Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd, which also applied for an extension in September last year but was conversely rejected due to the Welsh Government’s coal policies by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council.
Daniel Therkelsen, Campaigner, Coal Action Network: “The Welsh Government has said their position is ‘clear’, that ‘they want to bring a managed end to the extraction and use of coal’—but their jigsaw of policies on coal is as clear as the coal dust that continues to plague communities living around mines in South Wales, ban new coal mines and extensions and be done with it. Nothing about a ban would prevent access by the Coal Authority to address safety issues.”.
Overview and key facts on Glan Lash opencast coal mine extension application. The extension application was to extract a further 95,038 tonnes of coal (more than the original coal mine, licenced for just 92,500 tonnes).
Key Welsh Government policies relating to coal extraction include:
Planning Policy Wales (Edition 11) s.5.10.14 “Proposals for opencast, deep-mine development or colliery spoil disposal should not be permitted. Should, in wholly exceptional circumstances, proposals be put forward they would clearly need to demonstrate why they are needed in the context of climate change emissions reductions targets and for reasons of national energy security.”
Minerals Technical Advice Note 2: Coal “Government policies and planning guidance on the provision of coal have previously been set out in Mineral Planning Guidance Note 3 (MPG3) published in 1994 for England and Wales. MPG 3 (1994), apart from the Annexes, was cancelled by MPPW. This MTAN supersedes the 1994 Annexes, which are hereby cancelled… This coal MTAN sets out how impacts should be assessed and what mitigation measures should be adopted, and seeks to identify the environmental and social costs of coal operations so that they are properly met by the operator.”
Coal policy statement, 22 March 2021: “The opening of new coal mines or the extension of existing coaling operations in Wales would add to the global supply of coal, having a significant effect on Wales’ and the UK’s legally binding carbon budgets as well as international efforts to limit the impact of climate change. Therefore, Welsh Ministers do not intend to authorise new Coal Authority mining operation licences or variations to existing licences. Coal licences may be needed in wholly exceptional circumstances and each application will be decided on its own merits, but the presumption will always be against coal extraction.”
Published: 10.10.2023
On 15th September 2023, The Guardian reported that Tata Steel accepted Government funding to avoid closing its steelworks in Port Talbot, South Wales, by decarbonising it instead – but at a loss of up to 3,000 jobs.
The UK Government is providing £500 million, and Tata Steel is expected to provide another £725 million. Most of this money will go to converting the sprawling steelworks from its current Basic Oxygen Furnaces to Electric Arc Furnaces. The former produces virgin steel from iron ore, heavily relying on coal for the chemical reaction. Electric Arc Furnaces recycles scrap steel without needing coal. Currently, the UK exports a considerable quantity of scrap steel abroad (over 8 million tonnes in 2021), and scrap steel is expected to greatly increase in abundance globally.
Port Talbot steelworks is currently the 2nd highest source of CO2 from any single site in the UK. Transitioning this steelworks is expected to make a significant impact on the UK’s emissions. Steelworks around the world contribute 11% to global greenhouse gas emissions… rapid decarbonisation globally is essential to limit climate chaos and, alongside electric arc furnaces, alternatives are under development and testing that removes coal from the process of making virgin steel.
However, steelworks employ many thousands of people around the world, whose labour has been essential for everything from vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure to household appliances. It’s essential steel workers and their unions are centred in the changes needed to decarbonise steelworks to ensure a just transition that doesn’t leave these workers behind. The planned decarbonisation of Port Talbot Steelworks has been reported not to follow the principles of a just transition. Instead, the company has reportedly shut unions out of its negotiations with the UK Government and there aren’t any reported programmes of retraining or support packages to equip workers facing redundancy with realistic prospects of finding alternative work that suits their experience or ambitions.
Steel companies in Europe may be amongst the first to decarbonise their steelworks, so it is essential they set a good example for steel companies elsewhere to follow. European steelworks, therefore, must meaningfully engage with their workers and workers’ Unions from the outset of plans to decarbonise steelworks, focusing on those most impacted by potential changes. We are sceptical of top-down consultations on changes which often have foregone conclusions—engagement must be in the form of equal partners around the table. For workers, this can have the advantage of securing packages of support that are appropriate for their needs, whether that is to stay within the company or gain employment in another industry. Worker creativity may also reduce their own job losses and impacts—if they are able to meaningfully shape the transition process. Companies benefit from the creative capacity of workers who have on-the-ground expertise, greater trust in the changes ahead, reputational impacts, better worker morale and loyalty, and the wider fallout that structural unemployment can drive.
British Steel, the UK’s only other producer of virgin steel and operated by Jingye, is also considering converting its steelworks to electric arc furnaces in the hope of accessing hundreds of million in Government funding to decarbonise the steelworks. British Steel has secured a £100 million contract to build one of the world’s biggest offshore wind plants being built at Teesworks. We hope that Jingye actively involves workers at British Steel, and their unions, from the outset of any plans to transition its steelworks.
On the 14th September, a crowd of local residents and supporters assembled on the steps of Carmarthenshire County Council offices. This was on the day of a key decision meeting on the application to extend the Glan Lash opencast coal mine by 6.1 years to mine a further 95,000 tonnes of coal.
So many people came in to the planning committee meeting that the Chair exclaimed “I can see the gallery is comfortably full and that hasn’t happened for many a year!”.
After some presentations, Councillors then voted unanimously to refuse the application, to loud applause. We celebrate that 6.5 hectares of trees, hedgerows, and fields were spared destruction in the refusal of this application. As Cllr Thomas said in the meeting, “Speaking as a farmer…nothing grows [after restoration], the structure is gone… History shows the land never comes back to what it was. I second this proposal to recommend refusal”. This refusal stops any further delay to the restoration of the area already opencast, and creates a commitment to a cleaner, greener Wales.
Cllr Peter Cooper said “We’ve had it for too many years to have the opencast. I’ve worked in opencast. Believe me, the dust - you clean your windows one day, and the next it’s bad again. It will affect them all. I don’t think it’s right that people should have to put up with this again, these people. It’s not necessary.”
Cllr Russell Sparks added “We have no alternative, given the evidence presented to us today to refuse the proposal.”
Coal Action Network will continue to monitor what happens next, but we hope Bryn Bach Coal Ltd will respect the expert conclusions about the local ecosystem destruction from an extension, local democracy, and the 826 written objections to the extension application from local residents. The company should begin work on restoring the site immediately to the specification promised.
Term: 2 days/week (should be available Tuesdays)
Salary: £31,200 FTE (£12,480 pro-rata)/freelance £ 173 day rate
UK-based, work-from-home.
Application deadline: 0900 Mon 02nd October 2023
Background to the role
The UK currently has four coal mines at varying points in the planning pipeline. In December 2022, the UK Government surprised the nation by approving a new coal mine in Whitehaven, West Cumbria. In the same year, a coal mine in South Wales was licenced to operate for nearly 20 years more and double in size. The spectre of new coal mines looms as the UK Government’s opposition to coal weakens with senior politicians in the UK and Welsh Government increasingly repeating industry lies and throwing support behind UK coal mining—a disastrous shift that’ll reverberate through the world.
Purpose
You will create and deliver a political strategy to secure a moratorium (ban) on all forms of coal mining in the UK Government by January 2026, and the Welsh Government as a secondary goal.
You will work in a team alongside two other coal campaigners. In our non-hierarchical structure you will hold equal agency in decisions affecting the organisation, and, after your probationary period is passed, you will have the option to become a voluntary Co-Director, sharing legal responsibility for the organisation.
If aspects of the Role Description are unfamiliar to you, please see the 'Non-essential' section of the Person Specification for details of what you can learn on the job.
Responsibilities
Person Specification
Essential
Non-essential
These skills and knowledge will help you in the role, and if you don’t have them we can arrange training for you to learn them:
How to Apply
Please read the Job Description and Person Specification before applying for this role.
Deadline for applications is 0900 Mon 02nd October 2023.
Please send all applications and queries to HR@coalaction.org.uk with the words ‘Policy Change Campaigner’ in the subject line.
Recruitment Process
Interviews will friendly and informal, taking no more than one hour and be held over Zoom. Please advise us if there are any accommodations you will require in order to attend the interview and participate fully in it. We see the interview as a two-way process, so you’ll be invited to challenge us or ask questions at any point.
Inclusive Hiring Commitment
We particularly welcome applicants from backgrounds currently under-represented in paid roles in the UK environmental movement, including people from BAME and migrant backgrounds, refugee backgrounds, people who identify (or have identified in the past) as working class, gender diverse people, people with disabilities, and people from or based in the North of England, Wales and Scotland.
If our equal opportunities monitoring indicates that we have not received a diverse range of applications then we will re-open the application process, in which case you will be notified and your application will be automatically re-submitted.
If a final decision rests on two applications of equal standard, the principle of ‘positive action’ will be applied with regard to protected characteristics.
Home and office working can be supported with equipment if necessary
We are committed to improving our commitment to diversity and inclusion, and to decolonising the environmental movement. We welcome applications from people who will challenge us to go further in doing this.
Please contact us if you have questions or comments regarding accessibility and inclusivity or about other aspects of the job advert or recruitment process.
Please inform us if you would need paid childcare cover or any adjustments relating to disability in order to attend an online interview.
Workplace details
We are a remote-working organisation of a 7-person staff team, becoming 8-people with this recruitment. This represents significant recent growth for us.
We meet on zoom once weekly as a whole team (Tue afternoon) and ad hoc regarding campaigns. In between we communicate using email and Signal. We meet in-person several times a year.
Apart from one staff member, we all work part time and are supportive of flexible working arrangements alongside core hours. We are sometimes required to work outside of normal office hours, for example to attend events.
We are a non-hierarchical organisation, so we do not have managers or bosses but make agreements and decisions by consensus, and direct our own workloads collectively and individually. We have equal say in decisions affecting our work.
We support our staff with a range of enhanced leave options and employment terms in our contract.
We are registered as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee and as such are legally required to have directors who take legal responsibility for the organisation. To maintain a commitment to non-hierarchy, all employees are invited to become directors after passing probation, but this is entirely optional.
We recognise that non-hierarchical organisations are not immune to creating barriers to participation in the workplace, so we encourage people to challenge us to improve and adapt our workplace policies, structures, internal communications and working culture to become more inclusive.
The Planning Officer’s Report lends much weight to Bryn Bach Coal Ltd’s (BBCL) claim that most of the coal will be sent to non-burn end-use. BBCL has increased the proportion of coal it claims will go to non-burn end-use in successive versions of its application, without justification for these shifting proportions. The reality is that market conditions and the highest price would determine to which industry the coal would be sold. BBCL could at any time sell the mining rights to another company, as occurs at many coal mining sites, and that new company might choose to sell to other industries or export the coal as the Whitehaven proposal intends to. According to the BEIS Conversion Factors 2022, industrial application of the 94,900 tonnes of coal could total up to 229,000 tonnes of CO2.
Fugitive methane (a potent climate change accelerant) is released from directly from coal mines. Methane that escapes from coal mines globally must fall 11% each year until 2030 to meet IEA’s Net Zero 2030 Roadmap and avoid climate chaos. For each year of the proposed extension, researchers at Global Energy Monitor estimate 108 tonnes of methane will be released into the atmosphere at Glan Lash – totalling some 659 tonnes of methane. Increasing rather than decreasing this globally significant source of methane emissions breaches the IEA’s Net Zero 2030 Roadmap and does not conform to a globally responsible Wales.
The Planning Officer’s Report correctly identifies the shortcomings of the proposed replacement habitats, not least that new plantings are not commensurate with established habitats and the ecosystems they support, but the report stops short of pointing out that the habitats are unique and are not interchangeable and the criticisms of bio-diversity offsets. By way of crude analogy; someone who’s always lived in Carmarthen would not consider it the same if they had their house destroyed in Carmarthen but told they could move into another house in Merthyr Tydfil. We also highlight the Report’s reference to CCC’s independent ecologist’s point that equivalent biodiversity support from a newly planted woodland habitat (assuming it flourishes) will never catch up to that of the destroyed 2.48 Ha woodland habitat, had it not been destroyed – and that it would take 137 years to achieve what is currently supported. We question what the species of animals currently living in the existing habitat are to do for over a century in the intervening period. In a time of widespread habitat pressure, there isn’t clear evidence that animal life can be supported by neighbouring habitats to return later. Local populations, once wiped out, may never return. Growing climate change stresses on ecosystems necessitates established and robust habitats, existing biodiversity cannot wait 137 years for an established habitat. We do welcome the Planning Ecology Department’s determination that permitting this mine would be incompatible with both the Welsh Government and Carmarthenshire County Council declarations of a Climate and a Nature Emergency, as well as their respective responsibilities under the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.
Over 600 letters from Carmarthenshire residents have been sent to the Council in opposition to the opencast coal mine application and a demonstration is planned outside the Council building on the day of the decision meeting to show local support for a greener, kinder future.
The Planning Officer’s Report refers to the company’s claim that the washery and coal mine would employ 11 staff (3 new jobs) for the duration of the proposed extraction and the restoration period following cessation. We want to emphasise that 8 of those jobs, as well as the indirect jobs, are not dependent on the proposed coal mine extension but rather on the washery which has been operating without Glan Lash coal for years. So just 3 new, time-limited, jobs in a declining industry are at stake, and these would be required to restore the site for a period anyway. Jobs planting trees over jobs ripping them up.
Published: 13/09/2023
FIRST... Coal mining ban proposed by House of Lords
With a margin of 3 votes (197 for vs 194 against) in the House of Lords on 17th April 2023, Lord Teverson amended the Energy Bill to include a new clause on the 'prohibition of new coal mines' (a ban on the Coal Authority licencing any new coal mining in the UK). This wouldn't stop any coal mines already licenced, and would only apply 6 months after the bill had been passed - but it would cut off the pipeline of new coal mine applications. Just one Conservative Lord voted for this amendment - Lord Deben, Chairman of the UK's independent Committee on Climate Change.
Lord Teverson referred to the Whitehaven coal mine, approved in December 2022, when proposing the amendment, saying "If that happens once, it can happen again - that is why this amendment is so important," he said. He had previously believed a ban was not necessary because it was "totally and absolutely obvious" that building a new coal mine "would be a really stupid thing for a country to do".
THEN... Coal mining ban stripped out by UK Government
Back in the House of Commons, the UK Government Ministers stripped out the amendment banning new coal mines at the Committee-stage, before the revised Energy Bill could be debated and voted on in the House of Commons. MP Caroline Lucas said the Government's approach was "well and truly stuck in the last century...after endlessly repeating the importance of no new coal at COP26, its words have proved to be meaningless". Shadow energy secretary Ed Miliband had said Labour would back the ban.
Opposing the amendment, minister Lord Callanan said the government was committed to phasing out coal but argued that an outright ban could cause a "severe weakening of our security of supply".
NOW... Coal mining ban re-proposed by MPs Chris Skidmore & Wera Hobhouse
In the report stage, Conservative MP Chris Skidmore and Libdem MP Wera Hobhouse have attempted to re-introduce the coal mine ban by tabling similar wording as Lord Teverson's amendment to be put back into the Energy Bill (clause N2). MP Chris Skidmore also seeks to strengthen the UK Government's earler commitment to phase out coal being used to generate energy by tabling another clause (N3) - a prohibition of energy production from coal by 1 January 2025. This would change put the UK Government's policy commitment into legally-binding legislation, making it much harder for this or successive Governments to back-track on that commitment.
Amongst other important ammendments, the wording of the two amendments your MP needs to support are:
NC2 Tabled by: Chris Skidmore & Wera Hobhouse
To move the following Clause—“Prohibition of new coal mines
(1) Within six months of the day on which this Act is passed, the Secretary of State must by regulations prohibit the opening of new coal mines and the licensing of new coal mines by the Coal Authority or its successors.
(2) Regulations under this section are subject to the affirmative procedure.”
NC3 Tabled by: Chris Skidmore
To move the following Clause—“Prohibition of energy production from coal
(1) The Secretary of State must by regulations provide for the UK to cease energy production from coal from 1 January 2025.
(2) Regulations under this section may amend primary legislation (including this Act).”
The report stage for the Energy Bill is currently scheduled for Tue 5th September 2023, the day after the House of Commons returns from summer recess, at which point MPs will debate the various amendments tabled to the Energy Bill. The amendment will almost certainly be debated, however there’s no guarantee that it will be pushed to a vote – this depends on a range of different factors, including MPs’ priorities and whether the amendment is selected by the Speaker for a vote.
THE ASK: write to your MP, asking them to speak in favour of amendment NC2 and NC3 during the debate, and to vote for it, if it is "pushed to a division".
We are now able to reveal correspondence between Welsh Minister for Climate Change, MS Julie James, and then UK Government Minister Minister of State for Energy, Clean Growth
and Climate Change, MP Greg Hands. In a letter dated 07 January 2022, Minister Greg Hands states:
"I do agree that the Coal Authority’s statutory duty to promote an economically viable coal industry, as set out in the Coal Industry Act 1994, is at odds with our climate leadership ambitions and policies on coal so we are looking at measures to review that duty. I understand our officials have agreed to meet to share our thinking on a future licencing regime that reflects our different administrations net zero and climate change goals."
The amendment(s) proposed by MP Chris Skidmore (and Wera Hobhouse) would achieve what Greg Hands admits is necessary to meet the Government's climate commitments. So why did the UK Government remove Lord Teverson's amendment to achieve the same? What has the UK Goverment done to change the "future licencing regime"?
Welsh Labour Minister for Climate Change in the Welsh Government Julie James wrote to then Secretary of State Department of Business, Energy & industrial Strategy Kwasi Kwarteng in the UK Government on 26 October 2021, stating:
"...we consider the statutory duty of the Coal Authority to develop and maintain a viable coal extraction industry must be removed if we are to achieve our policy ambitions." adding "I seek to understand how the [Coal Industry] Act will be amended to reflect the need for the Coal Authority to consider climate policy in its decisions". Julie James is looking for reform rather than dissolving the Coal Authority, saying "....the Coal Authority has an important role to play in rapidly winding down remaining mining operations and delivering long-term environmental protection. In doing so, the Coal Authority has an important role in ensuring those communities affected by the legacy of coal mining receive a just transition."
Welsh Labour clearly indicate the need to reform the Coal Authority in a way that would stop new coal mine applications being licenced and support existing operations winding down, with a just transition for workers involved.
The need for law change: This year, Coal Action Network took the Coal Authority to the Cardiff Courts in a judicial review challenging the Coal Authority's insistence that it cannot consider matters such as climate change in determining whether to award a coal mining licence. The judge agreed with the Coal Authority, which confirms that legislative reform of the Coal Authority is needed to bring its licencing function in line with climate commitments - such as that proposed in amendment NC2 to the Energy Bill.
Time's running out: Since senior UK and Welsh Government Ministers admitted the need to cut off the pipeline of new coal mining applications, both the UK and the planet experienced its hottest ever days (2022 & 2023), June 2023 was the UK's hottest ever, and July 2023 was confirmed the hottest month worldwide since records began, and this year the world has been rocked by wild-fires, flooding, and storms. So the sense of urgency to ban coal mining and use has become even stronger.
Security of supply concerns: Alongside increasing this escalating urgency, TATA Port Talbot steelworks announcing it will imminently transition to recycling steel or else face closure, and British Steel reporting it will close its coke ovens. A credible home insulation plan would remove any energy security issues for keeping warm this - and future - winters, rather than spending more of my tax money propping up dirty coal power stations again. These are the only significant consumers of coal remaining in the UK so there is no energy security case to be made for continuing to mine coal in the UK.
On 15th and 16th March, Coal Action Network took the Welsh Government and Coal Authority (UK regulator of coal mining) to the Cardiff Court in a judicial review over their respective handling of the Aberpergwm application to extend workings by up to 42 million tonnes of coal and until 2039.
On the 19th of May, The Hon. Mrs Justice Steyn DBE decided in favour of the Welsh Government and Coal Authority, but granted us permission to appeal the decision about the Welsh Government less than 2 weeks later, on 31st May. Our court hearing for the appeal will be 06th February at the Cardiff Court!
The grounds for this appeal are:
This drone footage shot on 06 April 2023 shows plainly the local environmental impact of the Glan Lash opencast coal mine, and sends a powerful message to Carmarthenshire's Councillors, expected to make a decision in the coming months on whether to allow this local environmental travesty to expand in size and continue for longer. See our quick read on the application. Want to go on a deep dive on the Glan Lash coal mine? Read our report.
The Glan Lash opencast coal mine has been dormant since 2019. Restoring the site will provide employment and environmental benefits. From Carmarthenshire? Email your Planning Councillors through our form below, urging them to make the right decision.
You did it! Permission was refused on 14/09/23 by unanimous vote, after 826 residents objected!
Completing our contact form sends your message to all 20 Councillors on the Carmarthenshire Planning Committee, Council, and us.
Will Councillors reject the application to expand and extend the Glan Lash opencast coal mine, learning from the huge challenges that Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council is having with the illegal Ffos-y-fran opencast coal mine?
Put into your own words why you want Carmarthenshire Planning Committee to reject the application - here's some points you might choose to include:
Wrth gwbhau ein ffurflen cyswllt mae eich neges yn cael ei anfon i bob un o’r 20 Cynghorydd ar y Pwyllgor Cynllunio Sir Gâr, Cyngor, a ni.
Bydd y Cynghoryddion yn gwrthod y gais i ddatblygu ac ymestyn y pwll glo cast agored Glan Lash, dysgu o’r sialensau anferth mae Cyngor Bro Sir Merthyr Tydfil yn cael gyda’r pwll glo cast agored anghyfreithlon Ffos-y-Fran?
Rhowch yng ngheiriau eich hyn pam yr ydych chi eisiau i Pwyllgor Cynllunio Sir Gâr i wrthod y gais - dyma rhai pwyntiau gallwch ddewis i gynnwys:
With support from the Good Law Project, we have filed for a Judicial Review against both the Local Council and Welsh Government’s continuing failure to stop Ffos-y-fran, the UK’s biggest opencast coal mine, selling off over 1,000 tonnes of illegal coal each day right under their noses and to the harm of local residents, the surrounding environment, and our climate.
Even more scandalously, the Welsh Government has been profiteering by transporting this illegal coal along its railways over the past 11 months, to be burned by various customers in direct breach of its own climate commitments and policies against coal extraction.
Good Law Project has joined the fray, and are supporting us to finally stop the environmental onslaught of Ffos-y-fran with a judicial review. This has allowed us to assemble a crack legal team from Richard Buxton Solicitors, and Barristers’ Toby Fisher and James Maurici KC. Please share and donate to Good Law Project’s Crowdfunder (and check out their website, we could gush over all their work).
We are optimistic the legal pressure we’ve just heaped on will finally put a long-overdue end to what should never have happened in the first place. As with our judicial review (and now appeal!) of Aberpergwm deep coal mine, we shouldn’t have to undertake costly legal action to force the Welsh Government to fulfil its obligations to the current and future generations, in Wales and across the world.
See our Statement of Facts and Grounds (PDF) summarised below -
Coal Action Network is seeking to have judicially reviewed:
The grounds of claim are:
Coal Action Network is seeking a hearing on the first available date after 20 August 2023 to determine the following remedies:
After that, we’ll be campaigning for:
But what we must do now is to stop the daily environmental onslaught of the coal mine, producing equivalent to c4,000 tonnes of CO2 every day – or the average daily emissions of 175,000 people living in Wales, which is around 3x the population of Merthyr Tydfil itself! Imagine burning 1.75 MILLION litres of petrol every single morning – that’s the amount of CO2e this coal mine has been allowed to add to our atmosphere every day so far, illegally and without consequence.
Together, you, us, local residents, Good Law Project, and a network of Welsh groups like FOE Cymru, Climate Cymru, and XR Wales will prevail and put an end to this climate calamity any way we can. Let’s show the Council and Welsh Government how it’s done – time to roll up our sleeves and shut this mine down.
Let’s get it done
