A legal battle is brewing over the government’s decision to approve the UK’s first new coal mine in decades, shortly after it had pressured other countries to ditch the polluting fossil fuel.

Friends of the Earth (FOE), which fiercely campaigned against a new mine in Cumbria during the years of planning disputes, has confirmed it will file a claim later this month.

It will focus on the impacts that the mine, which is to provide coking coal for steel-making, will have on climate breakdown. Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel.

As he waved through the plans last year, Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove said he was confident the mine was compatible with the country’s legally-binding commitments to slash climate-heating pollution.

The long-delayed decision eventually came in December, a year after the UK had lobbied other countries at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow to “consign coal to history”.

Niall Toru, lawyer at FOE, said: “By giving the go-ahead to this polluting and totally unnecessary coal mine the government has not only made the wrong decision for our economy and the climate, we believe it has also acted unlawfully.

“Michael Gove has failed to account for the significant climate impacts of this mine, or how the much-needed move to green steelmaking will be impacted by its approval.

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“With the world facing a climate emergency, we shouldn’t have to take this challenge to court. Any sensible government should be choosing to leave coal in the ground.”

In December Mr Gove concluded the mine would have a “broadly neutral effect” on climate change because some emissions from steel-making are inevitable either way, and the coal may as well come from “a mine that seeks to be net zero”.

The developer, West Cumbria Mining, plans to offset the emissions from the construction, mining and domestic transport phases.

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The approval of the mine was “condemned” by the government’s official climate advisers and ridiculed by environmentalists and leaders from other countries.

Rowan Smith, solicitor at Leigh Day acting for FOE, said a “critical issue” was the “signal that granting a new coal mine in the middle of a climate emergency would send to the rest of the world”.

“Friends of the Earth believes that this was never properly grappled with by either the Inspector or the Secretary of State. We hope that the court will agree that this argument justifies a full hearing.”

Regular coal prices rose after Russia cut off Europe’s gas supplies, currently near an all-time high at $400 a tonne.

The impact on industrial coking coal has been less pronounced, with prices currently at around $296 per tonne, compared with the five year average of $235.

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