Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her policy is on underground coal gasification.

The Government has made a firm commitment to reducing the UK’s carbon emissions, and our recent ratification of the historic Paris Agreement shows we are serious about global action on climate change.

The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) commissioned a report from Atkins into the greenhouse gas implications of underground coal gasification to inform Government policy about its development in the UK. The report was peer reviewed by academics and industry.

The report finds that emissions from underground coal gasification would be too high to be consistent with our commitment to a low-carbon future. The Government is therefore minded not to support the development of this technology in the UK.

A link to the Atkins report has been provided below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/underground-coal-gasification-evidence-statement-of-global-warming-potential