THE COMPANY behind controversial plans for a new coal mine in west Cumbria has set out its case for the project - attracting stern criticism from Green MP Caroline Lucas.

Less than a week before a public inquiry into the Woodhouse Colliery plan is to get underway, West Cumbria Mining (WCM) has published a detailed explanation of why it believes the mine is necessary and acceptable, claiming that it will "directly" create 532 jobs as well as more than 1,600 jobs 'indirectly."

The company's claims were today attacked by England's only Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, who described the proposal as a "backward step," with the potential to tarnish the UK's standing in a world at a time when economies need to abandon fossil fuels.

Efforts should be concentrated on creating "green economy jobs," she says. WCM claims that its mining operation would help to avoid unnecessary carbon emissions by reducing the need for imported coal.

Environmental activists have repeatedly spoken of the urgent need to tackle what they - and an international panel of experts - have described as a climate "emergency".

The proposed mine aims to supply the British and European steel industry with metallurgical coal – considered 'essential" for the manufacture of steel in the blast furnace process.

WCM says the coking coal it wants to supply was recently identified as a ‘critical raw material’ by EU Commission and is ‘indispensable" for the steel industry's "transition to climate neutrality.’

The firm says British steelmakers currently import all their metallurgical coal for the UK’s two primary steel manufacturers at Scunthorpe and Port Talbot.

As a result, metallurgical coal is being railed and shipped thousands of added miles from overseas mines to customers in the UK and EU.

Additional emissions connected with this long-distance production, handling and transportation are thus being ‘off-shored’, claims WCM.

In a statement, the firm today said that Woodhouse Colliery would be "net carbon zero" for all aspects of the mining process from day one.

The firm adds: "The Woodhouse Colliery project will create 532 direct and 1,618 indirect jobs and deliver new UK exports, which are forecast to reduce the UK balance of trade deficit by around 1.8% annually.

It will deliver £130 million in annual spend in Cumbria when the project is in full production.

"The project is fully compliant with Government climate change policies alongside its wider Industrial Strategy, as a vital part of the steel industry supply chain. The mine would not be reliant upon any public funding and will represent a substantial post Brexit/COVID-19 inward investment into the UK economy."!

Mark Kirkbride, the Chief Executive of WCM, said: ‘We have considered the climate impacts of the project in great detail and implemented significant and world leading techniques to demonstrate that the resources industry can also achieve net carbon zero operations.

"I believe this will become a core part of the social licence to operate resource projects and we fully comply with the Climate Change Committee carbon budgets and proposed net zero test."

In a statement for the News & Star, Ms Lucas said: "However West Cumbria Mining tries to dress this up and greenwash it with claims of being ‘net carbon zero’, its coalmine is the wrong development at the wrong time. 

"This mine wouldn’t only take us in the opposite direction to where we need to be going on carbon emissions, it is also tarnishing what reputation the UK has on climate action and undermining the Government’s chance of persuading other nations to cut their carbon emissions.

"It is a giant step backwards for the climate and for the local economy.  

"Cumbria needs jobs, but they must be long-term sustainable jobs in the green economy, not a throw-back to a fossil fuel age we urgently need to leave behind."

In an earlier statement, Green Party activist Jill Perry spoke of the need to highlight "viable alternatives" to coking coal for steel production.

She said there was a need to show that they are realistic alternatives for employment on the west coast of Cumbria.

She highlighted how the Local Government Association had published research, Local Green Jobs – accelerating a sustainable economic recovery, which shows that 861 jobs could be created in Copeland, 1,170 in Allerdale and 1,802 in Barrow – far outweighing the 500 jobs promised by WCM.

"Given the uncertainty surrounding the jobs in mining, this seems an infinitely preferable option," she added.

Last month, The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its 6th Assessment Report on the Physical Science Basis of climate change. The report was described as a "Code Red" for humanity, highlighting the scale of the climate emergency and need for countries and governments to take rapid action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The report warned of increasingly extreme heatwaves, droughts and flooding, with key temperature limits being broken in just over a decade. "This is a code red for humanity", said a UN spokesman for the panel.