George Monbiot hits out at the decision to allow the Aberpergwm mine extension to go ahead following voice.wales report
Cover image: George Mobiot, copyright Guy Reece.
The prominent environmental activist George Monbiot said the decision to allow a fresh 40 million tonnes of coal to be mined in the Neath Valley over the next two decades could not be justified.
The campaigner, who is one of the most recognised climate activists in Britain and has lived for much of his life in Wales, said the decision to approve the mine ‘overrides the will of the people of Wales’ and flies in the face of the urgent need to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
The coal from the new Aberpergwm mine is expected to release around 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (5.5 million tonnes per annum) into the atmosphere, shattering Wales’ ‘Carbon Neutral’ targets.
The application for the mine was approved in January 2022, leading to a row over how it could be given the go ahead in the midst of the climate emergency.
Last week, voice.wales reported that pre-action legal letters on behalf of the Coal Action Network (CAN) revealed how Welsh Government Ministers failed on at least five occasions to oppose the mine extension, despite publicly declaring a climate emergency.
Reacting to the news, George Mobiot told voice.wales:
“The Aberpergwm decision not only overrides the will of the people of Wales, but also the clear advice of scientists: to prevent climate breakdown, we must leave fossil fuels in the ground. Starting with coal.”
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has stated that existing and currently planned fossil fuel projects such as Aberpergwm are already too much for the climate to take and should be stopped.
“It’s now or never, if we want to limit global warming to 1.5C,” Prof Jim Skea, a co-chair of the latest IPCC report has said. “Without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, it will be impossible.”
But if the Aberpergwm mine goes ahead, the carbon and methane emissions from the coal extracted there would help push the world above 1.5C of global warming, a threshold seen as vital for limiting the most catastrophic effects of climate change on people and ecosystems.
In 2019, the Welsh Government declared a climate emergency and Lee Waters, Wales’ Deputy Minister for Climate Change, has stated that the Welsh Government has a “clear policy of stopping using fossil fuels”.
But in spite of this, Waters has claimed his government was powerless to stop the mine, even though the Coal Authority repeatedly asked Welsh Ministers to make a decision over whether or not they approved of it, and said they believed Welsh Government had authority over the matter.
The decision to allow the new mine to go ahead, made by the UK Coal Authority following a lack of objection from Welsh Government, is now the subject of a legal challenge by the Coal Action Network against both bodies.
Daniel Therkelsen, Campaigner, Coal Action Network, told voice.wales
“The Welsh Government has made clear that new coal extraction is contrary to Welsh Policy.”
“Our legal team believes that the Welsh Ministers are wrong that their legal authority to approve coal mining licences in Wales doesn’t apply to the Aberpergwm expansion, and indeed both the Coal Authority and BEIS appear to agree, having written to the Welsh Government to say that this authority does exist… If we’re successful, it will render the licence for the expansion invalid unless a Minister of the Welsh Government subsequently approve it.”
