A decision to grant planning permission for a controversial coal mine in Cumbria has been set aside by the High Court in a major victory for campaigners.
The ruling follows a legal challenge by Friends of the Earth (FoE) and South Lakes Climate Action (SLACC) to the planning permission decision made in December 2022 by then Secretary of State for Inequality, Housing and Communities Michael Gove.
Days after the general election, the new government admitted that planning permission had been granted unlawfully and withdrew its defence to the legal challenge.
Powerful
This follows a Supreme Court ruling in June in a case brought by resident Sarah Finch against Surrey County Council, which upheld her argument that planning applications for fossil fuel projects must take into account the environmental impact of burning fossil fuels, not just their extraction.
In making its ruling, the High Court agreed with campaigners’ arguments that climate change-causing emissions from burning coal extracted from the Whitehaven Colliery – 99 per cent of emissions – had not been properly taken into account during the planning process.
The court rejected West Cumbria Mining’s (WCM) objections and the company persisted in its defence to the suit, despite the government withdrawing its defence.
According to FoE, the High Court’s decision sends a strong signal about the importance of Supreme Court rulings on fossil fuel projects.
“It is clear that the process for seeking permits for these climate-wracking projects has fundamentally changed,” the environmental groups said in a statement.
Judge Holgate agreed with FoE’s view that the Secretary of State’s actions in accepting WCM’s argument that the mine was “net zero” and would not affect the country’s ability to achieve the emissions reductions required by the 2008 Climate Change Act were unlawful.
confusion
Despite UK government policy not allowing reliance on international offsets to meet carbon budgets under the CCA, the mining company claimed it would offset emissions from its mines by buying carbon credits from overseas.
WCM also argued that Whitehaven’s coal would only “substitute” for coal mined elsewhere in the world, so there would be no net increase in global carbon emissions.
However, the judge agreed with FoE and SLACC’s challenge to this argument, concluding that “it is impossible to reconcile and confuse the contradictions.”” The Secretary of State’s views on this issue.
The judge also agreed with both plaintiffs’ arguments that the Secretary of State’s determination that the mine would not have adverse international impacts was legally incorrect.
The ruling means that Deputy First Minister and Communities Minister Angela Rayner must reconsider the planning application taking into full account the climate impacts, which could include calling for new evidence or reopening the planning inquiry.
