Coking coal still has a role – BEIS

Questions asked over Whitehaven Deep Coal Mine, UK, result in confirmation of legitimate use.

The Public Accounts Committee meeting on Achieving Net Zero held 28 January heard a question from MP Barry Gardiner, regarding permanent the commitments made in the Energy White Paper were, in light of the Government's decision to let the Whitehaven Deep Coal Mine to go ahead.

Sarah Munby, Permanent Secretary at Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), said that the Energy White Paper built on an enormous amount of progress, and that it did not mark the beginning of a decisive shift but a result of it. She said that the mine in question did not concern coal used for power, but coking coal.

Gardiner commented that the coal would still be used for power and asked what confidence she held that the UK would meet the new targets set for decarbonisation.

Munby said there was still a legitimate use for coking coal, even if the sectors using it would need to become cleaner with time. On the carbon budgets, she said that the UK was projected to exceed the expectations of the third budget and had already exceeded the first and second. She added that sectoral plans, to be released in coming months, would close the gaps to meet the next budgets.