BACK in the mid-18th century, Scotland was at the forefront of the industrial revolution.

Plentiful supplies of iron ore and coal helped drive the vast steel and iron works across Glasgow and Lanarkshire that shaped the country’s social history and provided great wealth for the plant’s owners.

Steel pioneers David Colville and Sons rose to dominance in Scotland’s industrial landscape after they struck upon a method of mass producing steel at a cost- effective price. Previous attempts had failed due to the high phosphor content of Scottish pig iron but the adoption of a new open- hearth method allowed the firm to successfully burn impurities and carbon out of the crude material.

Steel quickly became cheaper to produce than wrought iron and demand soared from the Clyde’s shipbuilding industry, which by 1913 was building a quarter of the world’s ships.

The firm supplied steel for the replacement Tay Bridge and the Forth Bridge, one of the first major steel structures in the world.

Steel production in Scotland grew from 1,199 tons in 1873 to 58,500 tons in 1890.

During WW1, the Colvilles took over and enlarged the vast Clydebridge works in Cambuslang and its steel plates were used to build some of the Clyde’s most famous ships – including the Lusitania, Queen Elizabeth and QE2.

Of course, by the late 1980s most of the mines and steelworks were gone, with areas such as Lanarkshire still feeling the effects of losing its two main industries, But could these halcyon days return after the UK government quietly approved a brand new colliery near Whitehaven in Cumbria.

The answer is almost certainly no but in the current economic and geopolitical climate, ministers probably had little choice but to approve it.

Of course, the news was greeted by much wailing and gnashing of teeth from the green lobby which warned it would spell the end of the world by next Easter.

It is their worst nightmare come true and is viewed as a retrograde step in the fight against climate change. The conundrum facing ministers, unsurprisingly, was caused by the war in Ukraine – an event that has caused chaos in the global economy.

Before the invasion, 40% of the coal needed to make steel in the UK, metallurgical coal, came from Russia which is obviously now under sanctions.

Since then, alternative suppliers have been found, but it raises once again the the issue of energy security, hence the new mine which will produce the coal needed to make steel.

Steel is vital for every modern economy but to produce it takes vast amounts of coal and iron core.

Environmentally friendly it is not but every high rise office block, railway, most bridges and various other vital infrastructure projects are made from steel.

Until there is an alternative way of producing steel then it will continue to belch out harmful emissions that give the green lobby kittens.

But it is also a key component in the manufacture of wind turbines, which are being erected to replace fossil fuel as an energy source.

Steel is also used to construct electric cars, which are being increasingly purchased as an alternative to diesel and petrol ones, which are to be phased out in a decade or so.

These cars also use far more minerals which need to be mined such as cobalt, copper, manganese and lithium.

Buses, railways and trains are also made out of steel, so it begs the question why bother making them run on so-called green energy when they are not in any way environmentally friendly?

Of course, one of the green lobby’s biggest problems is they cannot offer up an alternative when they demand things are banned.

Emissions are coming down across the Western world, but there is still a great distance to travel and it will take more than just money and goodwill to make a difference.

Simply banning a small coal mine in the north of England, where it will provide jobs, will not make a a jot of difference.

Importing coal is far worse than producing it ourselves when you take into account it has to get here by a diesel powered ship.

The world will almost certainly always need steel, the big conundrum is how to make its production cleaner and reduce its emissions.

Thousands of people are employed in the industry and if it was simply closed down on environmental grounds, the economic and social cost would be far greater than the green one.

Old king coal may have lost its ultimate power, but it remains vital cog.