Cumbria coal mine shows planning is the next battleground in UK climate policy

Last week the UK’s new Labour government made a bold decision. The new minister for local government, Angela Rayner, announced that the government would withdraw its support for a new coal mine near Whitehaven in Cumbria, which had been approved two years ago by the then Conservative government.

Rayner’s intervention follows a recent landmark Supreme Court ruling making it harder for new sites of fossil fuel extraction to be approved. Pointing to the implications of the court’s decision...