On July 1st, 2025, CAN organised an impactful drop-in session at the Senedd to reinforce the urgent need for action on Wales' coal legacy issues. The event, sponsored by Delyth Jewell MS, saw strong cross-party engagement, with Members of the Senedd (MSs) from Labour, Plaid Cymru, the Conservatives, and the Liberal Democrats in attendance.
Framed as a call to action on two interconnected issues—the future of coal tips and the restoration of the Ffos-y-fran opencast site—the session demonstrated growing momentum for change across the political spectrum.
CAN supported Delyth Jewell’s proposed amendment to the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill, which would rule out the sale of coal from disposed land for the purpose of burning. This simple but powerful clause would ensure that coal removed during the management of old coal tips cannot be fed back into fossil fuel supply chains—closing a loophole that could otherwise undermine climate commitments.
We also spoke with MSs to urge the Welsh Government to work constructively with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) in Westminster to ensure the UK-wide coal mine ban currently under development includes coal extraction from coal tips. As it stands, tip-extracted coal is not covered—a glaring omission that risks opening the door to a new phase of coal exploitation under the guise of legacy management.
Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd, which operated the Ffos-y-fran coal mine, is seeking to drastically reduce its contracted restoration obligations by up to £110 million. This is despite public filings showing £91.2 million already allocated for the site's restoration by the mining company. MSs attending our drop in session spoke with local residents we invited, viewed our gallery images of the coal mine site, and explored it for themselves via our 360 drone photos.
This raises serious concerns about transparency and risk—particularly given the site's proximity to local communities and the significant safety and environmental hazards involved. See our brief to find out what actions MSs can take today to deliver justice for Merthyr Tydfil.
Attendance at the drop in session by every Senedd party shows there is political appetite for action. Members across party lines recognised the urgency and legitimacy of the issues we raised. This is not about party politics—it’s about public safety, environmental justice, and the integrity of our climate commitments.
We thank every MS who took time to attend, engage with our materials, and listen to affected communities. We will continue to campaign so that Wales does not repeat the mistakes of its past but instead leads the way in managing its coal legacy responsibly.
We’re actively setting the record straight when fake news about coal is spread through public figures, social media, or the press. The rise of populist politics and politicians tend to drive statements that are don’t entirely match the evidence, but may win them some votes. Sometimes this is due to poor research, at other times it can be more calculated. Either way, the danger of this is that if those politicians are eventually elected, they will then need to pass policies based on the fake news if they want to keep those voters. This can lead to unnecessary, and sometimes damaging, policies that harms those very voters.
In a Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee meeting for the Welsh Senedd (parliament) on 04/06/2025, some falsehoods were voiced around coal which we’re keen to debunk:
“I just believe that anybody living within a community with a coal tip, as long as they knew that there was no further mining taking place, I cannot see how there would be an issue with the removal...”
Coal is never just lying in a neat heap on top of a coal tip – it’s mixed in with soil and rocks, and will always require mining to extract and filter it for the market. The only live proposal to extract coal from a coal tip is being strongly challenged by a determined group of people living locally to those coal tips, called the Friends of Sirhowy Valley Country Park. They oppose the local dust, noise, and disruption that would be caused by the coal extraction.
“We're very lucky in the fact that some of the coal mined—but we're not talking about mining, we're just talking about finding it in terms of remediation—burns at a higher temperature and so burns very cleanly.”
Anthracite is a high-carbon content coal which, when burned, emits a high amount of CO2 but is low in other pollutants. It is an expensive and relatively scarce grade of coal – as such, it’s not what would be widely discarded within coal tips. However, coal mined from the most recently closed opencast coal mine, Ffos-y-fran, was thermal coal – which had to stop being burned to generate electricity because the European Court of Justice ruled the toxic nitrogen oxides it emitted were too high. Cleaner imported coal had to be used at Aberthaw power station instead. Even after Merthyr Ltd invested £10 million in machinery so its coal could be burned at the Port Talbot Steelworks, doing so frequently made the steelworks exceed air pollution limits.
“I politely ask the Member from where she wants the 3.4 million tonnes of coal required in the UK annually to come from...if her answer is 'abroad', to explain how such a position is in the best interests of climate change, our carbon footprint, and Wales.”
Although this is phrased as a question, it implies that it would be better for the climate if the UK extracted as much of the 3.4 million tonnes of coal as possible here rather than importing it. Firstly, the UK also exported 731 thousand tonnes of coal in the same year, reducing the actual amount required in the UK. Secondly, this demand will now be much lower with the closure of the UK’s last coal power station in October 2024, and the decarbonisation of Port Talbot steelworks which started mid-2024. Regarding remaining demand, a recent High Court decision confirmed that extracting coal within the UK (through any means) would not significantly reduce coal mined abroad – so it would increase the global supply and use of coal. Flooding the UK market with more coal also discourages industry from investing in using alternative processes that cuts coal out, keeping up demand for the number one fossil fuel driving climate chaos today.
Explore the landscape via the images below, drag around the viewpoints and go full-screen for the immersive experience.
This is what the 58,000 residents of Merthyr Tydfil face every day...and with a new plan by mining company, Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd, to evade its responsibility to restore the site, this risks becoming a permanent reality. The Welsh Government must reign in this disreputable mining company and deliver the restored, safe, and green landscape promised to Merthyr Tydfil and Commoners for over 16 years. If you're a Senedd Member, see our brief for what we need you to do today.
Find out more about Ffos-y-fran opencast coal mine and join the campaign to get it restored.
Published: 02. 07. 2025
This is what the 58,000 residents of Merthyr Tydfil face every day...and with a new plan by mining company, Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd, to evade its responsibility to restore the site, this risks becoming a permanent reality. This would set a dangerous precedent for other quarries and large infrastructure projects too, with other companies also flaunting planning control and conditions with impunity. The Welsh Government must bring this disreputable mining company to heel and deliver the restored, safe, and green landscape promised to Merthyr Tydfil and Commoners for over 16 years.
If you're a Senedd Member, see our brief for what you can do today.
Find out more about Ffos-y-fran opencast coal mine and join the campaign to get it restored.
Published: 02. 07. 2025
This information seeks to clarify which tips are included in ERI Ltd's proposal to mine and then flatten certain coal tips in Caerphilly. The tips selected appear to be on the basis of which would be most profitable to mine of the 'waste coal' they contain, rather than which most endanger residents. This is not surprising as the proposal is being brought by a for-profit mining company, but it does differ from how the company is presenting itself as an expert in remediation rather than mining.
Tip 90319 that most concerns residents is closest to them - it backs onto the gardens of some residents. It's also a site with concerns surrounding possibly toxic elements contained within the tip. Due to its proximity to residents, it's also seen a higher proportion of intentionally set fires that the fire service has been called out for compared to the other tips sited further away. There are also more tangible signs of the tip's industrial past and ongoing monitoring than the other, more naturalised tips. If the priority was to remediate the coal tips, this tip would be prioritised. Instead, this tip has been excluded from ERI Ltd's proposal to mine coal tips, with the promise to use some of those profits to then flatten the coal tips and remediate the area.
Despite the concerns around toxic elements in tip 90319 and the visible industrial heritage of the site, there are signs of nature slowly returning to the area. It's vital that any measures to remediate this coal tip - or any others - in future take full stock of the nature that has regrown. If there are legitimate safety risks, though, this must be prioritised.
The Welsh Government's Deputy First Minister, in his response to the CCEIC’s Stage 1 Report, admits The Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) “Bill does not prevent the extraction or burning of coal” but adds “I cannot envisage a scenario in which the extraction and burning of coal will arise as a result of the Bill”. We see a clear and significant potential for the Bill to encourage the extraction of coal from coal tips for profit by the private sector, encouraged by land owners with concerns about ongoing maintenance costs, to be sold for polluting but non-energy uses.
We want to see the Deputy First Minister demonstrate his commitment to ensure the Bill does not have this unintended consequence by including on the face of the Bill an amendment that “That any coal extracted during remediation work cannot sold where there is any possibility of that coal being combusted, on the grounds that this will contribute to the climate change which the Bill acknowledges will increasingly threaten the stability risk of coal tips moving forward”.
Although the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill creates no new responsibilities additional to what is contained within the Mines and Quarries (Tips) Act 1969, it does both make potentially costly tip maintenance more enforceable and lowers the threshold to act for better prevention of tip instability.
The typical private land owner or even Council may welcome or encourage a proposal from the private sector to flatten the coal tip at no cost to them, rather than face higher ongoing maintenance costs relating to coal tip stability as a result of the above two features of the Bill. These costs can amount to millions of pounds. Although there has been a keenness to distinguish coal tip remediation from the coal tip safety monitoring and works that this Bill is concerned with, the reality is that this distinction blurs when remedial works can remove stability issues moving forward.
Caerphilly Council spent £1.8m across two coal tips (T10817 and T36144) on routine maintenance and preventative measures over just two years (2021-23). NRW responded to the CCEIC’s consultation, saying the Bill “underestimates the costs of compliance for tip owners”.
The Leader of Caerphilly County Council, in March 2025, wrote in relation to a proposal to mine two Bedwas coal tips by ERI Ltd:
“The risk of the tip is a current and real issue that is managed constantly by the infrastructure team, doing nothing is not an option… The project is designed to use the value within the land to address a risk for which it bears the responsibility to address. In return CCBC receive an asset in the form of a reclaimed tip with reduced maintenance liabilities that will be open to residents of the borough.”
This example is not in isolation either, “Andrew Morgan (WLGA) told the Committee that Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council (CBC) was regularly contacted by private companies with offers to remediate disused tips owned by the council” – p.50, Stage One Report.
The Coal Policy Statement of March 2021 cites that wholly exceptional applications for coal extraction would be considered if they could demonstrate why extraction is needed to “ensure the safe winding-down of mining operations or site remediation.”, amongst other criteria that could also apply to coal tip-remining projects.
The Coal Licencing Ban currently under formulation by the UK Government will also fail to catch such applications as they do not require a licence, only planning permission.
The Hardship Grant Scheme for landowners only exists where those landowners are unable to afford maintenance works, not for those who are technically able to but would struggle to, or understandably prefer to avoid, this new significant financial burden.
To ensure the Bill does not have this unintended consequence, we ask the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs to reconsider including on the face of the Bill an amendment that “That any coal extracted during remediation work cannot sold where there is any possibility of that coal being combusted, on the grounds that this will contribute to the climate change which the Bill acknowledges will increasingly threaten the stability risk of coal tips moving forward”.
This is an amendment supported by the Welsh Local Government Association in its consultation with the CCEIC, civil society (including consultees Coal Action Network and FOE Cymru), and the CCEIC itself in its Stage 1 Report.
Although the UK entirely removed coal from its electricity generation with the closure for Ratcliffe Power Station in October 2024, it continues to rely on coal in a number of industries. The UK must rapidly decarbonise these carbon-intensive industries to meet its climate commitments. Click on the tabs below to find out about each industrial application of coal.
WORLDWIDE
The direct use of coal as a feedstock (not just energy) is particularly significant in China, where coal is used extensively in coal to gasification plants to produce chemicals such as methanol, ammonia, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). In 2017, China's chemical industry alone used about 180 million tonnes of coal as feedstock, which constituted about 5% of China’s total coal use that year.
China is unique in its heavy reliance on coal for chemical manufacturing, accounting for a large share of global coal-to-chemicals production. For example, 89% of methanol and 76% of ammonia production in China is coal-based, and producing 1 tonne of methanol from coal requires about 2.7–3 tonnes of coal.
India is also expanding its coal gasification capacity, with government plans to gasify 100 million tonnes (MT) of coal annually by 2030
In contrast, other major chemical-producing regions (Europe, North America, Middle East) primarily use natural gas or crude oil as feedstocks rather than coal.
UK
There is negligible or close to zero coal gasification industry in the UK as of 2025: over the past 20 years, gasification projects have focused on waste or biomass, rather than coal.
WORLDWIDE
Global brick production was estimated at 2.18 billion tonnes in 2020, resulting in approximately 500 million tonnes of CO2e (1% of current global GHG emissions). Brick production could rise to 3.35 billion tonnes by 2050. Approximately 375 million tonnes of coal are used globally per year in brick production, mostly as fuel to heat kilns. Research indicates that coal is added to clay bricks at rates of 1–15% by weight of the clay mixture.
Switching from coal to alternative fuels, together with more efficient kilns, will lead to reduced CO2 emissions.
UK
Heating brick-firing ovens in the UK uses a mix of natural gas, electricity, coal and coke, diesel and LPG fuels. The primarily for use of coal in bricks, though is as an additive to colour it. According to coal mining company, Energybuild Ltd, UK brickworks consume approximately 70,000 tonnes per year of additives, which includes coal.
Annual tonnage of anthracite coal used by the UK brickmaking industry is not made public but the proportion used within the UK generally falls within the range of 1–5% of the brick mix by weight, depending on the desired product characteristics. This contributes to the high emissions released from the raw brick materials upon firing.
WORLDWIDE
Activated carbon is typically made from charcoal (wood) and is a common filtration medium in water treatment systems. It can be manufactured from other sources, with anthracite coal being a common source. Alternatives include nutshells. These sources are first processed into activated carbon through high-temperature treatment to create a porous structure suitable for adsorption
The global market for coal-based activated carbon was valued at approximately USD 4.44 billion in 2024, with demand driven by applications in air purification and water treatment.
Alternatives to the traditional sand/activated carbon dual medium to filter water include glass, garnet, magnetite, and other materials.
UK
The exact annual tonnage of anthracite coal used by the UK water filtration industry is not made public but it does use both domestically mined and imported coal.
WORLDWIDE
The cement industry consumes around 4% of global coal production, which amounts to approximately 330 million tonnes per year. Most of this coal is combusted to generate the heat required to fire the kilns to about 1450c to create the chemical reaction that produces cement. Roughly 0.5 tonnes of coal are needed to produce 1 tonne of cement.
Coal in cement production is primarily used as a fuel to heat kilns, but it can also serve as a minor feedstock in the form of fly-ash for introducing carbon into the clinker. Fly ash is used as a substitute for Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) used in cement production, and can actually increase the concrete durability, reducing the need for replacement. By using waste coal fly ash as a substitute for kiln-based ‘clinker’ in cement production, the cement industry can significantly reduce its carbon footprint. Post-consumer waste can also be used to both reduce the coal used to heat the kilns and to produce the fly-ash input, helping to decouple coal from the cement industry.
UK
Over 95% of UK concrete is produced in the UK. UK cement manufacture has begun switching from traditional fossil fuels such as coal and petcoke to the use of waste, waste biomass and waste part- biomass fuels. These alternative fuels now account for 43 per cent of the fuel used (2020), replacing the equivalent of half a million tonnes of coal every year. This means 1.16 million tonnes of coal would be used if it weren’t for replacement fuels, and 660 thousand tonnes of coal is still used in UK cement manufacture.
UK carbon dioxide emissions from concrete and cement were 7.3 million tonnes in 2018; around 4.4 million tonnes of this was ‘process emissions’ from clinker production, 2.2 million tonnes from fuel combustion and the remainder from electricity use and transport. This puts direct and indirect emissions at 53% lower than 1990. UK concrete and cement accounted for around 1.5% of UK carbon dioxide emissions in 2018. UK Government research indicates that the elimination of fossil fuels should be possible with no negative impact on clinker quality, kiln stability or build-up issues, but plant-specific modelling would be required. If coal used as a fuel and clinker input was switched for alternatives at all cement plants in the UK, the annual CO2 saving would amount to over 2 million tonnes of CO2.
WORLDWIDE
The steel industry produces 9% of the annual CO2 emitted globally, contributing significantly to climate change. This is largely due to the reliance on coking coal in primary steel production. 4 of the 5 biggest global steel producers aim to reach carbon neutral steel production by 2050, using green hydrogen instead of coal.
UK
Scunthorpe Steelworks still relies on coal-based steel production, and is the second biggest single site emitter of CO2 in the UK. Port Talbot steelworks recently closed to convert to using electricity to recycle scrap steel, decoupling it from coal inputs. The other two large steel producers – Liberty Steel and Celsa also recycle scrap steel in ‘electric arc furnaces’.
To keep up with global decarbonisation trends, Scunthorpe steelworks needs to decarbonise as well. If not, customers aiming to reach their own climate goals will likely choose to import lower carbon steel from other European countries like Sweden and Spain who are pursuing low-emissions steelmaking projects.
Read more about coal in steel in our 2021 report.
Graphite is a naturally occuring substance used in everything from pencils to batteries. Anthracite is one of several suitable carbon-heavy materials that can be used to make artificial graphite. If anthracite is used to make artificial graphite, it must be heated to extreme temperatures of 1,000c for ‘baking’ and up to 4,000c for ‘calcination’ to remove impurities making up 8% of the anthracite. This stabilises the artificial graphite end product. The heating would release greenhouse gasses in a similar way to if it were burned for household heating.
This process can be avoided by using natural graphite and scrap graphite. The UK doesn’t manufacture any artificial graphite and UK demand is also relatively low: “UK is a small net importer of natural and synthetic graphite”.
This nature was photographed around 50 metres from the edge of the Glan Lash opencast coal mine in Ammanford, South Wales. It shows the thriving ecosystems surrounding the Glan Lash opencast coal mine which has remained dormant since 2019. All the nature photographed would be killed and destroyed if Bryn Bach Coal Ltd get their application to extend the coal mine, approved. We're resisting this extension, you can too.
But this space is dedicated to celebrating the lush and undisturbed ecosystem currently here. Long may it remain so.
In February, CAN gave oral testimony to the Climate Change, Energy, and Infrastructure Committee (CCEIC) on the Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill. Alongside FOE Cymru, we gave a candid account of the strengths, weaknesses, and pitfalls of the Bill. Watch our session in full.
The CCEIC is the first committee scrutinising The Disused Mine and Quarry Tips (Wales) Bill passing through the Senedd, giving it significant scope to shape the Bill at an early stage. CAN successfully persuaded the CCEIC during our oral testimony to make key recommendations to the Welsh Government to improve the Bill in its Stage 1 report:
The Welsh Government should provide further assurance that:
Coal Action Network was invited to attend Westminster where we gave evidence to the Welsh Affairs Committee in their inquiry about the environmental and economic legacy of Wales’ industrial past, alongside Friends of the Earth Cymru.
This inquiry was opened in December 2024 to examine the environmental legacy and economic impact of Wales’ historical heavy industries. You can find our written evidence here.
In our submission, we focused on the consequences today of old coal mines. Whilst we recognise the wealth it generated, much of that was kept by the Directors of mining companies whilst abandoning their restoration responsibilities to host communities. Our 2022 report ‘Coal mine restoration in South Wales’ documents this pattern in Wales’ recent past. We also highlighted the threat of new coal mining under the guise of remediation, as proposed in Bedwas, South Wales.
