Old King Coal

The UK PM is coming under increasing pressure to cancel government approval of the UK's first deep coalmine for 30 years (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/05/experts-pile-pressure-on-boris-johnson-over-shocking-new-coalmine). The coalmine (Woodhouse colliery) is in Cumbria and would extract coal deposits from under the sea. The fuss seems to be a standard case of the local enthusiasms for 'jobs' (of benefit to the government's local political aspirations) trumping, at this stage, the same government's need to burnish its 'green' credentials (on the world stage). The timing could not be worse, as the UK will chair COP26 in Glasgow this year. Countries attending COP26 will be strongly encouraged to commit to net zero carbon emissions by 2030. It will be self-evidently difficult (and lots of voices are telling hime this) to get poorer nations to invest in green energy rather than coal and oil, when you, the host, are setting such a bad (and unneccessary) example.