The potential impact of two new coal mining projects on climate
change has recently been considered by separate UK decision
makers.
In March 2018, then UK Secretary of State for Housing,
Communities & Local Government, Sajid Javid, refused a planning
application for a three million-tonnes open cast coal mine in
Northumberland. He cited reasons that GHG emissions from the
proposed development would adversely impact measures to limit
climate change, departing from the appointed planning
inspectorate's recommendation to approve the scheme.
In his decision letter, the secretary of state said:
"He agreed that GHG emissions would be emitted in the
short-term resulting in an adverse effect of substantial
significance, reducing to minor significance in the medium-term;
and that greenhouse gas emissions in the long-term would be
negligible, but that the effects of carbon in the atmosphere would
have a cumulative effect in the long-term. Given that accumulative
affect, and
