New coal mine - 'We lament this great injustice' 

Baptists are among 450 church leaders and Christian campaigners who have called on the UK Government to reconsider the Cumbrian coal mine approval

Current Baptist Union president Hayley Young and former president Dave Gregory have joined others in signing an open letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Secretary of State Michael Gove, calling on the UK Government to rethink its approval of a new coal mine in Cumbria, which received the go-ahead in December but threatens the goal of limiting global heating to 1.5ºC. 

The mine would dig up coking coal for steel production in the UK and across the world. Supporters say it will create jobs and reduce the need to import coal.

The letter states, ‘We acknowledge that this region needs investment, but the Government is supporting a dying industry instead of securing sustainable green jobs for the long term. We know that every pound of investment in renewables creates three times more jobs than in the fossil fuel industry.

'Coal from this mine will continue to heat up the planet, pollute the atmosphere, and most severely impact those in the world’s poorest countries who have done the least to cause the climate crisis. We lament this great injustice.’

Coordinated by Young Christian Climate Network and supported by Operation Noah and Christian Aid, the letter has been endorsed by former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, by the lead environmental bishops for the Church of England and Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales (Rt Revd Graham Usher and Rt Revd John Arnold) and by the heads of the Church in Wales, the Methodist Church of Great Britain, the United Reformed Church, the Salvation Army, Undeb yr Annibynwyr/Union of Welsh Independent Churches, Quakers in Britain and the Scottish Episcopal Church. Members of other Christian denominations have also signed the letter, including Judith Morris, the General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Wales.

Last year, the International Energy Agency said there could be no new fossil fuel developments anywhere in the world if global heating were to be limited to 1.5ºC – the internationally agreed upon goal – while research from Carbon Tracker has found that 90 per cent of fossil fuel reserves must remain in the ground as unburnable carbon in order to limit global heating to 1.5ºC.

The open letter from Church leaders and campaigners quotes a 2018 lecture that Michael Gove gave to the Christian think tank Theos in which he said, ‘Christians are called to remember their rightful place within Creation – and the vast web of life it created – and their responsibility to protect and defend it.’ The letter states, ‘we urge the UK government to practise what (Gove) preached by keeping coal in the ground and investing in a sustainable future.’
 

YCCN is an action focussed community of 18-30 year old Christians choosing to follow Jesus in pursuit of climate justice

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