The long-running legal tussle over the government’s controversial approval of plans for a new coal mine in Cumbria reached another milestone this week, with an interim High Court hearing of a legal challenge brought by Friends of the Earth taking place today.
The campaign group argues Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove, who took the original decision to approve the plans for the new coal mine last year, did not sufficiently take into account the national and international climate and environmental implications of the decision.
Friends of the Earth’s senior lawyer Nial Toru said the group would this week seek the full disclosure of the advice that Gove received from his officials before taking the decision, which has yet to be disclosed by the government.
“The government has disclosed the advice it was given by the planning inspector before Michael Gove gave the go-ahead for a new coal mine in Cumbria – but key advice from his officials has not been disclosed,” said Toru.
“It would be very surprising if the ministerial submission failed to address key issues that are pertinent to our challenge, such as the developer’s claim that the mine would be ‘net zero’, the impact on UK carbon budgets and the adverse international impacts of granting permission. The ministerial submission must be disclosed.”
At today’s interim hearing, Friends of the Earth will argue the government is under a duty to share the ministerial submission – a duty of candour – with the court and the parties to the case.
The campaign group said that ministerial submissions are regularly disclosed as part of the duty of candour and often help determine the outcome of a judicial review.
Rowan Smith, solicitor at Leigh Day, which is representing Friends of the Earth, said that under international law the government had a duty to disclose information on how environmental policy decisions are made.
“As the Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove knows, for the past 20 years the international treaty, the Aarhus Convention has given people the right to access information about the environment,” he said. “The Aarhus Convention says the public should be provided with the reasons and considerations for decisions made about the environment. Friends of the Earth say this means Mr Gove should disclose the ministerial submissions about the Cumbrian coal mine that were given to him before he made his decision to grant permission for it to go ahead.”
Green groups are hoping to see the planning approval for the controversial project overturned, arguing that the failure to adequately consider the emissions implications of the development put the government in breach of the Climate Change Act and its international climate obligations.
But the government has insisted the decision was legal and remains in line with the UK’s climate goals, given the coking coal produced by the mine is designed to reduce the need for imports that would prove more carbon intensive.
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