Major wins of 2024

Over the past year, we've secured some massive victories. By taking part in our digital actions, supporters sent over 26,000 messages to the UK Government, MPs, Welsh Senedd members, Councillors, and companies to help consign coal to the history books in the UK.

1. The looming West Cumbria coal mine application has been effectively defeated this year, ending a campaign that you’ve helped us win since 2018.
2. Coal-fired electricity generation has been stopped across the UK - a key campaign aim that CAN was created for in 2008.
3. Relentless advocacy produced a commitment from the UK Government to ban new coal licences.
4. The tenacity of Sarah Finch, and the team around her, set a vital historic legal precedent so that now projects to extract fossil fuels will be judged on the climate impact of using those fossil fuels – which makes it far less likely new extraction projects will be permitted.
5. The Welsh Government has just announced a Bill to make unstable coal tips safer in Wales, improves lives of those living nearby…but will it encourage ‘re-mining’ coal from these tips?
6. The first year for hundreds of years where no new thermal coal was mined (anthracite coal continues to be mined in two mines in South Wales and Northumberland).
7. Port Talbot steelworks, the largest consumer of coal and second largest emitter of CO2 in the UK, started its transition to virtually coal-free secondary steelmaking (though unions and workers were effectively excluded from negotiations and now face widespread redundancies).

Published: 28. 12. 2024