UK faces criticism over support for coalmine project ahead of climate summit: Reports

LONDON: The UK government is facing mounting criticism from environment activists and humanitarian charities for supporting a new coalmine project in Cumbria, North West England, as it prepares to host the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in November, The Independent newspaper reported on Friday.
The outlet claimed to have seen a letter signed by 81 people, including representatives of Oxfam, Save the Children, the New Economics Foundation, Friends of the Earth, the Wildlife Trusts, Greenpeace and Christian Aid, in which they warned Prime Minister Boris Johnson that UK’s credibility is at stake ahead of the COP26, and considered “mystifying” that the government is not intervening to stop the project.
The signatories also reminded Johnson that the UK co-founded in 2017 the Power Past Coal Alliance, a group of 104 countries, cities, regions and organizations aiming to accelerate the fossil-fuel phase out of coal-fired power stations and switch to clean energy.
The Guardian newspaper also reported that “developing country experts, scientists, green campaigners and government advisers are increasingly concerned about the seeming contradiction of ministers backing the new mine.”
The paper quoted Mohamed Adow, director of the Power Shift Africa think tank and recent winner of the prestigious 3 million Climate Breakthrough Award, as saying that “it’s bizarre and shocking,” while the director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh, Saleemul Huq, said that the UK’s rhetoric loses credibility when a coalmine is approved.
US climate scientist James Hansen has also warned Johnson that his government’s decision not to block plans for the new Cumbria coalmine means the UK risks “humiliation” as the host of COP26.
“In leading the [climate conference], you have a chance to change the course of our climate trajectory, earning the UK and yourself historic accolades, or you can stick with business-almost-as-usual and be vilified around the world,” the former NASA’s leading global warming researcher wrote in a letter quoted by BBC.
The UK government has claimed that the approval for the mine that will produce coking coal for steelmaking and other industrial processes is a local matter that has to be decided by the Cumbrian council. (Sputnik)