Planning permission for a controversial coal mine in Cumbria has been overturned 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 Action on Climate Change (SLACC) against a planning permission decision made by then Secretary of State for Levels, Housing and Communities Michael Gove in December 2022.
Days after the general election, the new government admitted the development planning permission had been granted illegally and withdrew its defense of the legal challenge.
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This follows a Supreme Court ruling in June in a lawsuit brought by resident Sarah Finch against the Surry County Commission. The ruling supported Finch’s argument that planning applications for fossil fuel projects must consider the environmental impacts of burning fossil fuels, not just mining them.
In its ruling, the High Court agreed with campaigners’ arguments that climate change emissions from burning coal extracted from the Whitehaven mine – 99 per cent of emissions – were not properly taken into account in the planning process.
Despite the government withdrawing its defence, the court dismissed a counter claim brought by West Cumbria Mining (WCM) and the company continued to defend its case in court.
According to FoE, the High Court’s ruling sends a strong signal about the importance of the Supreme Court’s rulings on fossil fuel projects.
“This makes clear that the process for seeking permits for climate-damaging projects has fundamentally changed,” the environmental group said in a statement.
Judge Holgate agreed with the FoE and found that the Secretary of State had acted unlawfully in accepting WCM’s argument that the mine would be ‘net zero’ and would not affect the country’s ability to achieve the emissions reductions required under the Climate Change Act 2008.
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Despite the fact that UK government policy does not allow relying on international offsets to fund the carbon budget under the CCA, the mining company has insisted that it will offset the emissions generated by its mines by purchasing carbon credits overseas.
WCM also argued that the Whitehaven coal would simply ‘displace’ 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 objections to this argument, concluding that “it is impossible to reconcile the inconsistency and the confusion”.” The Secretary of State’s reasoning on this matter.
The judge also accepted the arguments of both plaintiffs, ruling that the secretary of state’s determination that the mine would not have adverse international impacts was legally erroneous.
The ruling means Communities Minister Angela Rayner, who is also the Deputy First Minister, must now reconsider planning applications, taking into account the climate impacts as a whole. This could allow her to request new evidence or even reopen a planning inquiry.
