With the closure of Ffos y Fran, which the Welsh Government supported, what consideration has the Minister given to the impact the closure will have on Welsh Government climate change targets due to the need to import coal to fill the gap in supply left by the mine's closure?
The decision to close the Ffos-y-Fran mine was not one taken by the Welsh Government, but was made by the operator, Merthyr (South Wales) Limited, after it failed to acquire an extension to its planning permission from the local planning authority. Global net-zero targets can only be met if known fossil fuel reserves are not extracted and consumed. Increasing the domestic extraction of fossil-fuels would add to the global supply of coal, having a significant effect on Wales’ and the UK’s legally binding carbon budgets as well as international efforts to limit the impact of climate change. The Welsh Government’s established policy objective is therefore to avoid the continued extraction and consumption of fossil fuels.