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Aberpergwm Judicial Review decision

In 2022, we launched a Judicial Review as one of the last chances to stop Aberpergwm deep coal mine extension in South Wales, and keep up to 42 million tonnes of coal in the ground. Many of you donated generously to make that legal challenge possible, and our legal team worked tirelessly to deliver a razor-sharp case. However, on 19th May 2023, the Judicial Review decision upheld the mine to continuing to operate until 2039 to the tune of over 100 million tonnes of CO2.

This judgement comes fewer than two months after the IPCC released a report sounding the ‘final warning’ of irreversible and catastrophic climate change. Although ultimately the judge’s decision upholds the Aberpergwm coal mine in the midst of our climate crisis, the judgment agrees with our legal team on a number of crucial points, creating some optimism around a possible appeal. An appeal is no light undertaking in time and funding… but we need to throw everything we’ve got at stopping this when literally everything is on the line with climate-trashing projects like Aberpergwm coal mine. We’d definitely need your help via a new appeal crowd funder if our expert legal team advise us this is the way to go. If you’re able to chip in to pay for our current legal advice, our judicial review CrowdJustice crowdfunding page is still open.

In 2021, the International Energy Agency set out a pathway to reach net-zero by 2050, in which for both energy generation and the steel industry, “[n]o new coal mines or extensions of existing ones are needed…existing sources of production are sufficient to cover demand through to 2050” (p103). In addition, Port Talbot Steelworks and British Steel steelworks are negotiating with the UK Government to cut coal out of their steel manufacturing. There is no need-case for the Aberpergwm coal mine, whereas the need-case to keep all coal in the ground is a liveable planet.

Progress is uneven and marked by setbacks like this, but we’ve won against 23 coal mines in the UK—there's 4 more to go, and to finally close the door to any new coal mines. We hope you’re with us until the end. Subscribe to our mailing list to keep updated on our campaigns and get involved.

Published: 19/05/2023

Find out more about the campaign against the Aberpergwm coal mine, as well as our campaigns against three other coal mine applications in the UK.

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