“Shocking, shameful, abhorrent:” Coal mine approvals slammed for reckless disregard of climate

The Albanese government has given the green tick to three major thermal coal mine expansions in New South Wales, in a move that critics say lays bare the blatant disregard of climate change in Australia’s federal environmental laws.

Environment minister Tanya Plibersek signed off on Tuesday to extensions to two coal mines in the Hunter Valley – stage three of Whitehaven’s Narrabri underground mine and Ashton Coal’s Ravensworth mine – and to Mach Energy’s Mount Pleasant optimisation project in the state’s north-west.

Environmental Justice Australia say the Mount Pleasant extension – which was the subject of an “epic, but ultimately unsuccessful” community-based legal challenge – will create the biggest coal mine in Australia, three times larger than the Adani coal mine approved by the Morrison government.

The decision, which Plibersek says was made “in accordance with the facts and the national environmental law,” has received widespread condemnation over the significant climate impact the projects will have, alongside their impacts on biodiversity, water supply and endangered species habitat.

According to the Lock the Gate Alliance, the Narrabri Underground coal expansion approval extends to 2066 and will clear 457 hectares of habitat for the endangered koala in the Pilliga Forest and drain farm water bores in the Hunter region.

The “huge expansion” to Mach Energy’s Mount Pleasant open cut mine on near Muswellbrook will clear the habitat of a legless lizard listed as endangered earlier this year, and which lives only in the Hunter region, the Alliance says. 

The Ravensworth decision re-approves the exploitation of around 40 million tonnes of coal at the closed underground mine which Lock the Gate says would otherwise not have been mined. 

But it is the “reckless disregard” for the effects of catastrophic climate change that has been the most jarring, with the three projects estimated to lock in as much as 1.5 billion tonnes of lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions – more than double Australia’s total annual emissions.

“We are shocked that a government that came to power promising to halt extinction and act on climate change has sunk so low,” said Lock the Gate Alliance spokesperson Carmel Flint in a statement on Tuesday.

“It is shameful that a government supposedly committed to net zero emissions by 2050 has approved thermal coal mines, the most polluting fossil fuel on the planet, to operate until 2058, 2064 and 2066. Australians will pay the price of this decision for generations to come.”

The approvals come as Labor’s “Nature Positive” legislation, including proposed laws to create an independent environmental regulator, Environmental Protection Australia, and to factor climate into the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, remains stalled in the Senate.

As Michael Mazengarb explains here, Australia’s EPBC Act does not include climate change as a ‘matter of national environmental significance’, and the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions on the environment – which are well understood to be potentially devastating – are totally ignored.

This has allowed around two dozen new fossil fuel projects to be waved through under the EPBC Act by the Albanese government – decisions inconsistent with its stated commitment to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees but acceptable under our current environment laws.

And the ongoing refusal of the government to negotiate on the introduction of the climate trigger – a policy Anthony Albanese once personally supported – has seen him compared to former prime minister Scott Morrison and labelled a ‘bulldozer’.

“We are utterly devastated at the news that Minister Plibersek has approved these mines, ignoring their climate impacts,” says Christine Carlisle, president of the Environment Council of Central Queensland (ECoCeQ), which led a legal battle against the Narrabri and Mount Pleasant extensions.

“We fought so hard to avoid this.

“It’s abhorrent the Albanese government has chosen to approve three massive coal mines that will dig and burn coal until 2066 when the science is clear: this is supercharging climate breakdown,” Carlisle says.

“This is a betrayal of our environment. A betrayal of our children. A betrayal of all that we hold dear.” 

The Australian Greens say the latest coal mine approvals are a betrayal of everyone who voted for climate action in the 2022 federal election.

“To have any chance of meeting climate targets there can be no new coal or gas mines, yet Labor has now approved 26 new coal and gas projects since coming to power. Each one will make the climate crisis worse,” Greens leader Adam Bandt said on Tuesday.

“Emissions are higher under Anthony Albanese than last under Scott Morrison, and now Labor has made the climate crisis even worse.”

On the subject of emissions, Plibersek says that in the case of the these three coal projects, emissions will be considered by (Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen) under the government’s strong climate laws that were supported by the Greens political party and independents.”

But as Mazengarb explains, the current design of the Safeguard Mechanism, to which Plibersek is referring, only applies to ‘Scope 1’ emissions directly produced a facility’s operations within Australia.

Scope 3 emissions, produced from the burning of coal or gas after it has been exported from Australia, are not covered, despite accounting for around 90 to 95 per cent of the total emissions footprint of exported coal or gas.

“Everybody is impacted by fossil fuel consequences,” says Ketan Joshi on LinkedIn. “Cost of living crises are exacerbated, energy and food supply chains become more unstable, and disasters become an increasing physical threat to our immediate safety.

“No one wants to live a shittier life so that a coal mining company can boost its profits, or so a politician can keep the gravy train of donations flowing in.”

“This shocking news is a slap in the face for our climate and our economy – and puts the mining lobby’s continued influence over Australian public policy on full display,” adds Richard Denniss, executive director of The Australia Institute.

“The …coal mine extensions given the green light will pollute our air with more than one billion tonnes of carbon emissions until the year 2066 – all during a rapidly escalating climate crisis.

“Despite the claims of the mining industry and their mouthpieces in the Murdoch Press, we know opening new coal mines is damaging to our climate, to public health and that it makes no sense economically,” Denniss says.

“Every decision like this betrays future generations,” said Climate Council chief Amanda McKenzie on Wednesday. “Our children will not forgive us for locking in more climate pollution for decades to come.

“Under Labor, Australia is making strong progress on clean energy, but approving coal projects undermines our momentum. They can’t have it both ways – continuing to invest in fossil fuels pours more petrol on the out-of-control fire that is the climate crisis.

“Climate scientists could not be more clear, coal, oil and gas are causing immense harm and this will only get worse if we do not stop burning them. Australia must not approve new coal, oil and gas projects. If the government fails to listen to this advice, future generations will pay the price,” McKenzie said.

Joe Rafalowicz, head of climate and energy at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, describes the approval of new coal mine expansions during a climate and biodiversity crisis as an “act of unparalleled environmental vandalism.”

“Hiding behind the figleaf of broken environmental laws, which this government has so far failed to fix, is no excuse for adding 1.3 billion tonnes of carbon pollution to our atmosphere by approving more coal,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.

“A safe and liveable climate for all must be at the heart of our government’s decision-making – we urge the Albanese government to prioritise the fast, fair phase out of fossil fuels and to uphold its commitment to ‘no more extinctions’.”

With some reporting from AAP