The Guardian

Pressure is growing on the government over its support for a new coalmine in Cumbria, as the UK prepares to host the most important UN climate summit since the Paris agreement was signed in 2015.

Developing country experts, scientists, green campaigners and government advisers are increasingly concerned about the seeming contradiction of ministers backing the new mine – the UK’s first new deep coalmine in three decades, which will produce coking coal, mostly for export, until 2049 – while gathering support from world leaders for a fresh deal on the climate crisis.

The UK is to host the Cop26 UN climate summit in Glasgow in November, at which countries will be asked to sign up to long-term targets of net zero emissions by 2030, and to submit short-term national plans setting out reductions to their emissions between now and 2030.

Mohamed Adow, director of the Power Shift Africa thinktank and recent winner of the prestigious £3m Climate Breakthrough Award, said: “It’s a bizarre and shocking decision. People in the developing world who are suffering from the effects of the climate crisis will be horrified. They are relying on the UK to be their champion on climate change and be an example, not returning to the dirty days of coal.”