Labour demands for a ‘national climate emergency’ declaration were criticised after it emerged a council run by the party backed plans for a new coal mine.
The government was challenged to announce the status - which means drastic action to cut carbon emissions is needed - by Labour’s Sue Hayman earlier this month.
The shadow environment secretary went on to say her party would press ahead and make the emergency declaration “with or without the government’s support”.
But the party now stands accused of failing to “put their money where their mouth is”, after a decision by Labour-run Cumbria County Council, in Hayman’s “back yard”, last month to allow the first new deep coal mine in the UK for decades to be built.
It comes after it emerged the UK would miss almost all of its 2020 nature targets and thousands of climate change campaigners took to the street.
West Cumbria Mining, which is ultimately controlled by a company based in the Cayman Islands, wants to extract coking coal from the seabed at St Bees, near Whitehaven.
Climate change experts and environmental activists urged councillors to reject the proposals, saying it would jeopardise the area’s emissions targets.
But persuaded by the company’s promise of 500 new jobs for the area, councillors agreed to approve the plans, despite saying it was a “tough” decision.
No one party has overall control but the Cumbria council has a Labour administration and the plans won unanimous approval.
Hayman, who represents Cumbria’s Workington, has not commented on the mine.
But she has called on Gove to declare a “national climate and environment emergency”.
Amelia Womack, Green Party deputy leader, welcomed Hayman putting pressure on the government, and said of Labour: “We need to see them put their money where their mouth is.
“Being serious about tackling climate change with the urgency it requires means taking radical, bold action right now.
“You cannot tackle climate destruction while supporting airport expansion, or, as is happening in Sue Hayman’s own back yard, the approval of a new coal mine. None of this is compatible with the radical action we need.”
Extinction Rebellion protesters have targeted roads, London tube trains and Heathrow Airport to bounce the issue of climate change up the agenda.
Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg, who started a worldwide protest when she refused to go to school, met MPs, including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, to tell them young people’s future was being “so” by politicians’ failure to act.
Thunberg called the coal mine plan “absurd”, telling a meeting of MPs in Westminster: “The expansion of airports as well as the planning permission for a brand new coal mine – is beyond absurd.”
HuffPost UK contacted West Cumbria Mining for comment but has not received a response.
Its chief executive, Mark Kirkbride, told the BBC earlier this month that the mine would be a “good neighbour” and was committed to creating jobs.
The demand for steel, for which the coking coal is needed, was expected to grow “significantly” over the next 50 years, he also said.
The council, meanwhile, was warned at last month’s meeting that eco-campaigners could launch a legal challenge.
HuffPost UK has contacted Hayman and the Labour Party for further comment.