(Bloomberg) -- The UK’s approval for the first deep coal mine in over three decades is unlawful, a London judge ruled, scrapping the current planning permission for the controversial development.
Lawyers for Friends of the Earth and South Lakes Action on Climate Change challenged the UK government’s decision to grant permission to the mine. They accused the government of not taking into account all the harmful emissions in the climate assessment for the Woodhouse Colliery project in Whitehaven, north west England.
Judge David Holgate agreed in a ruling on Friday and said the then Conservative government didn’t properly consider the full scope of climate changing emissions that would be burned from extracting the coal.
“The assumption that the proposed mine would not produce a net increase in green house gas emissions, or would be a net zero mine, is legally flawed,” he said.
The new Labour government said it wasn’t going to defend the claim shortly before the July hearing after accepting it had been unlawfully granted — although West Cumbria Mining Ltd., the developer, continued to fight suit.
The decision comes after the country’s Supreme Court ruled that all emissions produced either on site or along the supply chain need to be fully considered when looking at whether new fossil fuel sites should be approved.
“West Cumbria Mining will consider the implications of the High Court judgment,” a spokesperson said.
Friends of the Earth said in a statement that unless the developer withdraws its application, the government will now have to reconsider whether to allow the mine to be built.
Spokespeople at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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