Citing different grounds to the High Court, the Court of Appeal has nevertheless found against our appeal. The Court of Appeal judges disagreed with the judge in the High Court, and decided that current statute limits Welsh Ministers to only deciding whether a new conditional licence may be issued…

Today, 6th February 2024, Coal Action Network was back in court, this time appealing last year’s decision by the court that the Welsh Government couldn’t prevent an extension at Aberpergwm coal mine.

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…

it was announced the Judicial Review decision has upheld the mine continuing to operate until 2039 to the tune of over 100 million tonnes of CO2. This judgement comes fewer than two months after the IPCC released a report sounding the ‘final warning’ of irreversible and catastrophic climate change…

Today (25th April) people dressed as Rebecca Rioters protested against the Welsh Government’s failure to deliver a complete ban on coal mining on the steps of the Senedd (Welsh Parliament). The Rebecca Riots took place between 1839 and 1842 with the destruction of the toll gates which taxed rural people’s produce.

We arrived outside the Cardiff courts to press teams and a strong demonstration in support of our case for a more sustainable future in Wales and the UK—one that cannot have coal in it. Welsh people are standing up to say they want to carve out a future that doesn’t carve up more…

Demonstration in support of a 2-day court hearing to rule that the Welsh Government can apply its strong policy against coal mining to stop the Aberpergwm coal mine expansion in Glyn Neath. Show up to show the Welsh Government that you care about fossil fuels and the climate change it drives…

Will you invite your Members of the Senedd to a briefing on basic income & the transition to a zero carbon economy, and the latest on the expansion of Aberpergwm colliery and other Welsh coal problems? The event takes place on the 30th November.

At the end of November 2021, we noticed the licence application for an extension to ‘Aberpergwm Colliery’ on the little-publicised webpage of the Coal Authority. This webpage contains a listing of all coal mine licences and licence applications and is a good one to bookmark and check back regularly…

42 million tonnes during the life of the extension + 30 million tonnes of “middling” coal to be dumped or put back into the coal mine.
Around 100 million tonnes of CO2 and up to 1.17 million tonnes of methane could be emitted during…

Energybuild hasn’t been keeping local people in the loop, so we thought we would! Volunteers from Neath Port Talbot Friends of the Earth have given out flyers in Glynneath to start conversations and direct people towards this information about the mine expansion…

Our Barrister’s pre-action letter convincingly puts the power to stop the Aberpergwm colliery extension licence firmly in the hands of Welsh Government Ministers. Now it is up to those Ministers to take their rhetoric and put it into swift, decisive action…

On 25th January 2022, whilst the Welsh and UK Governments continued to argue over which could stop it, The Coal Authority approved the full licence for an underground coal mine extension to Energybuild Ltd. The company can now mine a further 40 MILLION TONNES of coal until 2039…

Combined, both of you have received nearly 4000 emails from people who are dismayed by the news that the deep coal mine operated by EnergyBuild Ltd in Aberpergwm may imminently have the licence to extend it deconditionalised by The Coal Authority regulator…

Energy Build ltd are on the cusp of getting their Aberpergwm coal mine extension licence. The licence could be obtained any day, and work begin shortly thereafter. Coal is our collective heritage, but it cannot be our future…

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Mining company, ERI Ltd, is applying to mine nearly half a million tonnes of coal from two coal tips dumped in Caerphilly, South Wales, by the mining industry last time it operated in the area. It’s vital we stop this shameless attempt to exploit the mess left behind by the mining industry to justify yet more mining. If the coal tip mining were to go ahead, it would…

‘Energy Recovery Investments Ltd’ is proprosing to extract the coal from 3 large coal tips in Bedwas, Caerphilly, South Wales. The company claims that it would use some of the sales of the coal to restore those coal tips later. The coal tips lie above a coal seam, which the company claims it would coincidentally have to dig into to create ‘lagoons’ for processing the coal from the coal tips…

Councillors 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…

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…

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…

Bryn Bach Coal Ltd submitted an application in 2019 to expand the Glan Lash opencast coal mine by 6.68 hectares (originally 7.98 hectares) with the site boundary at 10.03 hectares, to extract a further 95,038 tonnes of coal (originally 110,000 tonnes, and represents more than the original coal mine licenced for just 92,500 tonnes) over 6.1 years…

There are many calls to reject the proposed expansion of the Glan Lash opencast coal mine on the grounds of climate change, citing Planning Policy Wales (Edition 10). But Llandybie Community Council and Councillor Davies support it—citing jobs, community fund, and repeating the company’s claims of low climate change impact…

After a week of peaceful protest around the world, alongside hundreds of groups, our efforts have paid off. Yet another leading insurance company, Probitas, has ruled out insuring the proposed West Cumbria coal mine and the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).

EMR Capital, the company that owns 81% of the proposed West Cumbria Coal mine is currently operating another coking coal mine – Kestrel.

How did we get here? Ten years of events that have led to where we currently stand with the proposed Whitehaven coal mine

People hailing from Cumbria to London, and everywhere in between, descended on the Mines and Money Conference in London across two days (28th-29th Nov 2023). We demanded that investors stop pouring cash into the mining sector, and  instead invest in our collective future. Together with Fossil Free London and other groups, we greeted investors with…

This page gives suggestions of answers to some of the more detailed questions campaigners get asked about West Cumbria Mining Ltd’s plans for Whitehaven.

The insurers that have ruled out underwriting the mine are AEGIS Managing Agency, Argenta Syndicate Management, Hannover Re and Talanx. These are the first financial institutions to rule out any involvement with the project, and the win represents a new phase in the campaign to stop the project from going ahead.

25 large banners opposing the proposed new coal mine near Whitehaven with the words ‘NO TIME for a COAL MINE’ were dropped on all the roads entering Cumbria on the 25th August.

The legal challenges against the Government’s approval of a new coking coal mine in Cumbria has been delayed from October, likely into the new year. A Supreme Court judgement on a related case causes the delay, as the decision is awaited.

Regular events are planned for outside the proposed site at Whitehaven. Come and show your support for leaving the coal in the ground.

A High Court judge has given the go ahead for 2 legal challenges over the government’s decision to grant planning permission for a controversial new underground coking coal mine in West Cumbria to proceed to a 3 day hearing in October 2023. 

Groups have taken action since the government approved a new coal mine proposed for Whitehaven, Cumbria—including: Chris Packham joined Friends of the Earth, Extinction Rebellion and others…

Two legal challenges have been launched against the government’s approval of a new coking coal mine in Cumbria. Find out the details.

On Wednesday (21/12/2022) a gang of Santas delivered sacks of ‘naughty list coal’ to Michael Gove at his Department of Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities office in Whitehall on behalf of Coal Action Network and Lush cosmetics. Holding signs reading “Christmas coal for climate criminal…

The UK Government has produced a 15 page letter plus appendices which outlines the reasons for granting permission to the Whitehaven coal mine application (Ref: 4/17/9007). This is mostly in the form of highlighting points on which Michael Gove agrees with…

Following the shocking decision that the UK government are allowing a new underground coking coal mine under the sea by Whitehaven Cumbria, we invite you to show your disdain and join our protest. The action is a twitter ‘storm’ now that a decision has been made.

At the end of 2021, Boris Johnson said, “I’m not in favour of more coal” in response to questions about the proposed Whitehaven coking coal mine during the Glasgow COP26 climate summit. Yet today a massive new underground coking coal mine…

Coal to be excavated: 61.4 million tonnes of coal in total and 2.93 million tonnes of coal per annum (at full capacity)

Coal to be sold: 55.6 million tonnes of coal in total and 2.78 million tonnes of coal per annum (at full capacity)…

There are a range of organisations fighting against this disastrous proposal, each with different tactics and strategy, but working together to stop the mine.

Coal Action Network’s drone footage on Monday 11th March raised the alarm bell about the rising water levels. With this footage, a local resident informed Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council of the rising water levels, only to be told…

The Crown Prosecution Service has dropped all charges against the four Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists who blockaded the entrance to the UK’s largest open-cast coal mine, last summer with a pink boat. While removing the immediate burden of legal confrontation for the defendants, the decision has left a “crater of unfinished business” in the fight for climate justice and accountability for local residents…

We are an environmental organisation dedicated to ending coal mining and use in the UK for the sake of our collective climate and ecosystems. So you’d think we’d celebrate the claim by Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd that it will finally stop mining coal today at Ffos-y-fran in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. But we’re not. Because the abject failure of Merthyr County Borough Council to stop…

01 September 2022: Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd applies for a S.73 time extension to mine coal from Ffos-y-fran, and to accordingly delay and vary restoration works.
06 September 2022: Planning permission ends for coal mining at the Ffos-y-fran site, after 15 years and 3 months of operations.
12 September 2022: first reports to MTCBC have been made by local residents of coaling beyond the end of planning permission.

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…

Respected senior Barrister, James Maurici KC, and Barrister Toby Fisher have today released a blistering open letter of legal advice that reveals for the first time that the company operating the UK’s largest opencast coal mine, Ffos-y-fran, in South Wales is doing so “unilaterally and unlawfully” without the approval of “any democratically elected bodies or persons”…

Based on the most recently available official statistics from The Coal Authority, since planning permission ended, by the end of May 2023, nearly 300,000 tonnes of coal would have been mined without any attempt to stop it, at the climate cost of almost a MILLION tonnes of CO2…

After two decades of campaigning, last night (26/04/23) Merthyr Tydfil residents, Coal Action Network, and other environmental campaigners finally stopped Ffos-y-fran opencast coal with the Council’s refusal of permission to extend!

Today (25th April) people dressed as Rebecca Rioters protested against the Welsh Government’s failure to deliver a complete ban on coal mining on the steps of the Senedd (Welsh Parliament). The Rebecca Riots took place between 1839 and 1842 with the destruction of the toll gates which taxed rural people’s produce.

Ffos-y-fran is a large opencast coal mine in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales which has operated for over 15 years. On 06th September 2022, planning permission for the opencast coal mining came to an end… but the mining company continues mining an average of 1,000 tonnes of coal every day…

In September 2022, Ffos-y-fran opencast coal mine’s 15-year planning permission ran out and the coal mine was due to close and restoration begin. However, Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd applied for a S73 time extension to mine coal at the site for a 9 months, with an intention to submit a further application for a 3-year expansion….

In September 2022, Ffos-y-fran opencast coal mine’s 15-year planning permission ran out and the coal mine was due to close and restoration begin. However, Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd applied for a S73 time extension to mine coal at the site for a 9 months, with an intention to submit a further application for a 3-year expansion…

Wales is about to decide whether to expand the UK’s largest opencast coal mine by nearly 4 years, emitting almost 6 million tonnes of CO2, and 16,000 tonnes of methane from the coal mine itself. The climate-trashing Ffos-y-fran coal mine in Merthyr Tydfil extracts up to 50,000 tonnes of coal every month…

Wales is about to decide whether to expand the UK’s largest opencast coal mine by nearly 4 years, emitting almost 6 million tonnes of CO2, and 16,000 tonnes of methane from the coal mine itself. The climate-trashing Ffos-y-fran coal mine in Merthyr Tydfil extracts up to 50,000 tonnes of coal every month…

Ffos-y-fran (pronounced in English as Fossey-vran) is a large opencast coal mine in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, mining primarily thermal coal. Mining company Merthyr Ltd (previously, Miller Argent) was awarded planning permission in February 2005 on appeal and began opencast coal mining….

Port Talbot Steelworks in South Wales is the largest producer of virgin steel in the UK. Along with British Steel steelworks in Scunthorpe, Port Talbot steelworks is expected to shut down its blast furnaces in 2024 and build a 3 million tonne (MT) electric arc furnace (EAF) to recycle scrap steel. This is a measure to reduce the steelworks CO2 footprint by cutting out coal used in traditional blast furnaces in virgin steelmaking.

People hailing from Cumbria to London, and everywhere in between, descended on the Mines and Money Conference in London across two days (28th-29th Nov 2023). We demanded that investors stop pouring cash into the mining sector, and  instead invest in our collective future. Together with Fossil Free London and other groups, we greeted investors with…

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…

Update on coal extraction and use in the UK. The situation with coal production and use in the UK is changing. There is a legal challenges to the proposed West Cumbria coal mine and Aberpergwm extension; and an illegal mine operating in Merthyr Tydfil. Updated stats from the government’s July Digest of UK Energy Statistics.

Update on coal extraction and use in the UK. The situation with coal production and use in the UK is changing. There are no new opencast mines proposed; only one proposed opencast coal extension and one existing opencast extraction site…

New report from Coal Action Network. Coal in Steel provides background information to campaigns against proposed new coking coal mines and considering how coal needs to be phased out of steel production.