Albanese’s four new coal mine extension approvals could crash the Safeguard Mechanism 

In the last 90 days, the Albanese government has approved 7 new coal mining extensions. That newest batch of four coal mines approved yesterday, includes a super-emitting mine in Queensland that could almost crash the Safeguard Mechanism. 

It was only a month ago that the Climate Change Authority issued a clear warning to the Albanese government.

In their Annual Progress Report, they stated clearly that new coal and gas projects were eating up the emissions space the Albanese government needed to keep spare under the Safeguard Mechanism’s promised emissions cap.

Following the approval of three new coal mines in September, including the Narrabri underground coal mine, the slim emissions buffer zone left for the Safeguard Mechanism to operate under by 2030 had decreased by 30 million tonnes, or 36%.

Now, that buffer zone just got much, much smaller.

In the shadow of Dutton’s nuclear flop, the Albanese government has just tried to sneak 4 new coal mine extensions under the pre-election Christmas tree.

That includes three new coal mining extensions in Queensland, one of which, Vulcan South, may have already “illegally” cleared 47 hectares of koala habitat for a ‘test’ coal mine this year.

Vulcan South’s new approval under the Federal Government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) enables the coal mine to potentially clear a further 1,000 hectares of Koala habitat, which according to the Mackay Conservation Group, “is equivalent to over 500 Gabba sized football fields”.

The approvals will also enable BHP’s Caval Ridge, one of Australia’s largest coal mines, to continue its mining until 2056. This mine is so big, it set a world record for the largest electronic explosion in 2020, and when its coal is burned, it releases more carbon dioxide emissions each year than the country of Nepal.

It is also one of clearest examples of an open-cut mine which has recently shifted from a state-based to a company-led emissions measurement approach, reducing the emissions it reports domestically by close to half a million tonnes of CO2-e per year. 

This is similar to the Boggabri coal mine in northern NSW, which currently estimates its fugitive methane emissions to be on average 87 times lower than the NSW State-based emissions factor.

The coal mine, which literally has an image of a Wallaroo on its application page cuts through the Leard State Forest, risking the lives of 34 threatened species and home to the most extensive remaining Box-Gum Woodland in Australia. Yesterday, the coal mine was given the green light to dig up an additional 61.6 million tonnes of coal.

However, perhaps the biggest risk to the Safeguard Mechanism in the suite of coal mines approved yesterday was the Lake Vermont Meadowbrook project. This Queensland coal mine currently operates as an open-cut mine, producing approximately 9 million tonnes of metallurgical coal each year, and releasing an average of a little more than 318 thousand tonnes of CO2-e per year over the last 5 years.

Their coal mine application was not to simply extend the life of their existing open cut mine like the others, to develop not a new open cut pits, but an entirely new underground mine. According to a decarbonisation plan presented by the Jellinbah group in October 2023, emissions could skyrocket as a result of these new mines, especially its new underground mine.

The plan estimated that total fugitive emissions over the lifetime of the underground mine alone, could be as high as 31.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent between 2025 and 2055. In fact, emissions could exceed 1 million tonnes by 2027, 1.5 million tonnes of CO2-e per by 2028 and 3 million tonnes per year by 2036, if not effectively mitigated.

If that trajectory holds true, it could become the 3rd biggest emitting coal mine in Australia by 2028.



If we follow the Climate Change Authority’s recent guidance on new project approvals and the remaining Safeguard Mechanism space, that would mean that this new approval could add an additional 3 million tonnes of CO2-e by 2030. That could reduce the remaining “Safeguard Buffer Zone” by approximately 6 per cent.

These are emissions that potentially could be reduced through mitigation technology that’s ready to go. They’re even emissions that the coal mine operator estimated, through a combination of pre-mine drainage, ventilation air methane capture, and post mine drainage, could decrease by 90%.

Strangely, the Queensland’s Coordinator General argued instead that “those emissions reduction measures” might not be “commercially viable” before 2030, and seemed to chastise the coal miner for decarbonisation measures they proposed themselves.

This flies in the face of independent assessments by Rystad, the IEA, and Ember that highlight these mitigation actions could be attractive under appropriate incentive and regulatory structures. This is especially the case if 3rd party operators are given regulatory clearance and incentives to manage emissions and any mitigation risks on behalf of the coal mine operators.

This is exactly the type of project the Labor government once considered critical to review under a Federal EPA. It is also something that would be examined under a ‘climate trigger’ within the EBPC Act. 

oaBut after a conscious decision to ignore the climate impacts of these mines, the government has just approved a suite of new mines, including a super-emitter that could become one of the gassiest mines in the country before 2030.