Coal Action Network

New Campaign Campaigns

• 

  No new opencast coal mines in Durham, UK.

  No new opencast coal mines have started in England since 2013. Since then the Government has said that it will phase-out coal by 2025. It's vital that we prevent a new mine starting which would cause local and international environmental destruction and which the local community have clearly rejected. Bradley is a greenfield site in County Durham between the villages of Dipton and Leadgate. The site supports a wealth of plants and animals, including Great Crested Newts, badgers, red kites. Banks Group plan to mine 550,000 tonnes of coal from the site, starting work this spring. The Bradley opencast mine is a case where the original decision to grant planning was grossly wrong and the development is likely to damage the wider public interest. Since the planning permission was granted in June 2015 there have been significant changes in national and international policy with regards to coal and climate change. 1) Coal use in the UK has dropped to 7% of the UK’s energy mix compared with 30% in 2014. 2) The government has said it will phase-out coal by 2025. 3) The UK and Canadian governments want to be world leaders with their Powering Past Coal Alliance. 4) The Paris Agreement requires that action is taken to prevent global temperatures from raising by 2 degrees and pursue efforts to keep them from a 1.5 degree raise. Thomas Davison, 28-year-old a resident living 300 metres away from the proposed opencast site said; “Banks' desire to extract 550,000 tonnes of coal is driven by nothing more than profit and not at all by a genuine need for energy. We have moved onto other forms of cleaner energy for the good of our global climate. So why is it worth harming the local wildlife and the local economy for one last money grab?”

  89,356 of 100,000 Signatures

  Created by Coal Action Network
• 

  End opencast coal for good

  Opencast coal extraction is a reckless and dirty industry that is fuelling climate change while hurting communities in the UK and abroad to fuel UK power stations. Over the next few weeks, the UK government faces a choice: it can let this dirty industry get bigger, or it can end opencast coal extraction for good, honouring it’s promise of a 2025 coal phase-out to the British people, saving communities and protecting the climate. Right now, the government is considering whether to allow two opencast coal mines in the North of England 1. Bradley in Pont Valley, which is already destroying the countryside, and 2. Druridge Bay, which threatens a pristine stretch of coastline. Both mines are being pursued by Banks Group; the only company in the UK pushing for the expansion of coal extraction. They have already extended their operation at Shotton, Northumberland and are undertaking a scoping inquiry into a new one at Dewley Hill, near Throckley, Newcastle. Together these four projects would extract over 6.5 million tonnes of coal and release around 13 million tonnes of Co2 . There’s no time to lose - at the Bradley mine in Pont Valley, each day that goes by means more coal being burned and more countryside being lost. The government is due to make a decision on both Bradley and Druridge Bay in the next few weeks. Banks Groups lawyers and lobbyists are putting forward their arguments in favour of their damaging projects. Let’s make sure we get heard too. Sign our petition to make sure that the government makes the right decision and ends opencast coal mining for good.

  118,432 of 200,000 Signatures

  Created by Coal Action Network