DEMAND FOR COAL IN UK

That this House notes that coal is a valuable mineral resource which is used for a variety of purposes including iron and steel manufacture, cement manufacture, coke manufacture, domestic heat generation, sugar production, food and beverage production, chemicals production, patent fuel manufacture, including smokeless briquettes, carbon fibre products manufacture and other uses, as well as electricity generation; further notes that over the last decade or so around nine million tonnes per annum of coal has been needed in the UK for non-electricity generation purposes; notes that if the UK does not produce its own coal it simply imports more from other countries such as Russia, the US, Colombia and Australia which produces more CO2 via its transportation than coal produced in the UK; and therefore calls on the Government to introduce measures that increase the production of high quality coal in the UK to keep jobs, skills, taxes and investment in the UK and cut down the CO2 associated with transporting coal from producers hundreds of miles away.