Previously unpublished documents have surfaced that appear to contradict the government’s claims for a new coal mine in Cumbria.

When upgrade minister Michael Gove approved plans to build Woodhouse Colliery near Whitehaven in December 2022, he said the UK would need coal to continue making steel.

But newly revealed documents drafted around the same time by the then Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) suggest otherwise. According to the documents, officials predict with “a high degree of certainty” that technologies such as electric arc furnaces will successfully decarbonise UK steel production by 2035.

“This new information opens a gaping hole in the government’s case for supporting the proposed Cumbria coal mine,” said Tony Bosworth of Friends of the Earth.

“When Michael Gove approved the mine 14 months ago, he claimed it was necessary because of huge uncertainty over British steel’s ability to decarbonise over the next 15 years.

“Now we find that, at the same time, there is a ‘high degree of certainty’ among government officials about the industry’s move away from coal.”

The documents were disclosed to Friends of the Earth by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), the successor to BEIS, as part of the environmental campaign group’s legal action against the government’s climate plans.

The ‘risk table’, compiled in preparation for the government’s 2023 carbon budget delivery plan, analyzes potential threats to the policies in the plan published in March last year.

The document sets a target of electrifying all steelmaking plants by 2035: “We have a high degree of certainty about the implementation of this policy… as we consider the deliverability and confidence in the technology to decarbonise steelmaking, which will impact Most of the emissions reductions (e.g. using electric arc furnaces).”

Steel is made by subjecting iron ore or recycled scrap steel to an intense heating process. Traditionally, this was done in coal-fired blast furnaces, but modern electric arc furnaces use direct current to generate the high temperatures required.Such technology, which has a fraction of the carbon emissions of traditional coal-fired blast furnaces, “has been in use for decades and [have] “Emission savings have been demonstrated,” the BEIS document states.

This position is inconsistent with the one taken by Gove when approving new mines.exist his letter In granting planning permission, Gove said it was “uncertain” whether electric arc furnaces or any other alternative technology would significantly transform steel production and that the UK would need a continued supply of metallurgical coal in the coming years.

“It is clear that the European and UK steel industries are currently dependent on suitable supplies of metallurgical coal, and … the evidence suggests that although this reliance in the UK and Europe is likely to decrease over the development cycle, there is still a market for coal,” he said.

The £165 million Woodhouse coal mine is expected to have an annual production capacity of about 2.8 million tonnes and will create 500 local jobs, with supporters seeing it as a means of “balancing” the poor areas of northwest England. But Gove dismissed strong opposition to approving the mine, including from senior colleagues in his own party.

Reading West MP Sir Alok Sharma, who chairs the Cop26 UN climate summit in Glasgow, called the mine a “retrograde step”. Lord Deben, then chairman of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), called it “untenable”.according to CCC’s forecastthe mine will add 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide₂ annual emissions.

The closure of the UK’s last remaining blast furnaces – British Steel’s plant in Scunthorpe and Tata Steel’s site in Port Talbot – has cast further doubts over the mine’s construction. Both companies have said they want to upgrade to electric arc furnaces, and the government has pledged at least £500 million to Tata Steel for its transition efforts, with British Steel expected to provide a similar level of support.

Bosworth said: “The level of confusion in the government’s steel policy is shocking. On the one hand, the government claims that the British steel industry will need coal for decades to come, and on the other hand, it provides hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money to help the industry. Rapid decarburization.

“This confused thinking in government must stop. Ministers in every government department must accept that the steel industry is moving away from coal and withdraw support for this unnecessary and destructive mine. This will also help recovery The UK’s global credibility on climate change.

“Ministers should put regions like West Cumbria at the heart of a green industrial strategy, creating new jobs and business opportunities and putting the region at the forefront of building the cleaner future we desperately need.”

Friends of the Earth are currently taking the government to court over the new mine. Gove’s Department of Housing and Communities declined to comment, saying legal action was continuing. DESNZ did not respond to a request for comment.