Court fight to scrap Narrabri and Mount Pleasant coal mine expansions fails
A court has paved the way for two NSW coal mine expansions after dismissing a legal bid to force the federal environment minister to protect ‘living wonders’.
A court has paved the way for two Australian coal mine expansions after a non-profit’s bid to force the federal environment minister to reconsider climate risk assessments was dismissed.
It was the first legal action against a coal or gas project Tanya Plibersek has faced as environment minister, and relates to Mach Energy’s application to expand its Mount Pleasant open cut mine until 2048 and to Whitehaven’s application to extend its Narrabri underground mine until 2044.
Both are located in NSW.
The Environment Council of Central Queensland Inc, argued Ms Plibersek failed to consider potential damage from global warming due to emissions from the expanded coal projects, including further destruction of the Great Barrier Reef.
But Federal Court Judge Shaun McElwaine dismissed the case on Wednesday and Ms Plibersek can now decide whether or not she issues the federal green light to expand the two coal mines.
In his Judgement, Justice McElwaine said the non-profit did not demonstrate Ms Plibersek “erred” and upheld a move to expand the mines.
“The applicant’s arguments … raise matters for parliament to consider,” he said.
Following the judgement, a spokeswoman for Ms Plibersek said “no decision has been made about the projects yet.”
According to the judgement, Ms Plibersek “was not satisfied” the mines would cause a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions and Justice McElwaine agreed with her logic.
“As demonstrated by the coral bleaching example, the causal connection is remote, in the sense that it is many times removed, in time and place, from the action of expanding the mine,” he said.
“The Minister concluded … that the possible increase in net global greenhouse gas emissions and total average temperature resulting from the proposed action was ‘very small’ and on that basis the proposed action would not be a substantial cause of the identified physical effects of climate change.”
Outside court, Environment Council of Central Queensland president Christine Carlisle said the group will consider an appeal.
“We are bitterly disappointed for what this means for our lives,” she said.
The non-profit argued greenhouse gas emissions will be locked in if projects like Mount Pleasant and Narrabri continue.
The council was represented by Environmental Justice Australia, and sought a judicial review of the minister’s climate risk assessment of the expansion of two coal mines.
The council asked Ms Plibersek to review her assessment that the third stage expansion of Narrabri would not exacerbate the effects of climate change on the physical environment, but there requests were knocked back.
The council has called its campaign to scrap new fossil fuel approvals the Living Wonders campaign.
A previous legal challenge to the Narrabri expansion, lodged by community group Bushfire survivors for Climate Action, was thrown out by the NSW Supreme Court in July this year.
The legal fight sought to challenge whether the NSW independent Planning Commission sufficiently considered the effect of the coal mine expansion on the climate. But the bid was dismissed.
The Narrabri thermal coal mine is owned by a subsidiary of Whitehaven Coal Limited.
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