The UK’s first deep coal mine in decades will be a disaster for Britain's fight against climate change

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Even if they kept them turned off for 20 years, you still would not have saved all of the 420 million tons of carbon emissions emitted by a new planned coal mine over its lifetime. The proposed Woodhouse colliery in Whitehaven, Cumbria – the first deep coal mine in the UK for 30 years – was quietly given the go-ahead while attention was diverted by the government’s announcement of a temporary moratorium on fracking. A coalition of Labour, Tory and Lib Dem councillors on the local council gave permission for the project earlier this year, accepting the coal corporation’s assurances that its benefits outweighed any “unacceptable environmental impacts”. “A new coal mine just 10 miles from the most dangerous nuclear power plant and storage depot in Europe,” says Marianne Birkby, a spokesperson for the anti-Woodhouse campaign group.