Steven Miles bans Great Artesian Basin carbon plan

Queensland will permanently ban proposed carbon capture and storage projects in the Great Artesian Basin in a move that the mining industry says could undermine Australia’s transition to its net zero emissions target.

Queensland Premier Steven Miles on the Gold Coast on Wednesday. Picture: Dan Peled / NewsWire

Queensland will permanently ban proposed carbon capture and storage projects in the Great Artesian Basin in a move that the mining industry says could undermine Australia’s transition to its net zero emissions target.

After outcry from agriculture and conservation groups over Swiss mining giant Glencore’s proposal to dump carbon dioxide into the basin in southeast Queensland, Premier Steven Miles will on Friday announce plans to outlaw any carbon capture proposal for the state’s component of the massive under­ground water reservoir.

The move follows a determination by the state Environment Department last week that the Glencore project was “not suitable to proceed due to potential impacts on groundwater resources in the Great Artesian Basin”.

The CTSCo project – in which Glencore partnered with Low Emission Technology Australia, a $700m fund established by the Australian black coal industry – planned to inject captured carbon dioxide from a coal-fired power station 100km west of Toowoomba into the basin.

It was vehemently opposed by farmers, environmentalists and local mayors.

On its website, LETA said: “Australia’s first carbon hub will be built on the foundations of the CTSCo project and prove the ability to store up to three billion tonnes of CO2 in the region”.

Earlier this year, Queensland-based agriculture lobby group AgForce took the Albanese government to the Federal Court in a bid to force federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to reconsider a 2022 Morrison government decision that the project did not require assessment under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

In a statement to The Australian, Mr Miles said the ban was being introduced to safeguard agricultural activities in the region.

He said future carbon capture projects in other parts of the state might still be able to go ahead, depending on environmental impact assessments by the government.

“I think the Great Artesian Basin’s unique environmental, agricultural, economic and cultural significance is worth protecting,’’ the Premier said in the statement. “It’s why I will be legislating to prohibit carbon capture and storage projects in the Great Artesian Basin in Queensland.

“I’ve listened to Queenslanders and I am making sure our government is doing what matters for the natural phenomenon that is the Great Artesian Basin.

“We will continue to review the safety aspects of greenhouse gas storage in the state to support future generations of Queenslanders and ensure Queensland’s great natural environment is preserved.”

Farmers had feared that dumping CO2 within the 1.7 million square kilometre basin, which covers 22 per cent of the continent, would cause irreparable harm and lead to millions of tonnes of industrial waste being stored in the Great Artesian Basin, the main water source for much of inland Queensland and NSW.

AgForce chief executive Michael Guerin said he welcomed Mr Miles’s decision but the Albanese government needed to follow his leadership with a similar ban across the entire basin. “The Great Artesian Basin can’t be saved by the Queensland Premier,’’ he said.

“It is a water resource that sits under three states and one territory and the federal government needs to … ban any similar proposal across the country.

“It is a matter of national environmental significance’’.

A Glencore spokesman said the company was disappointed by the Queensland government decision after the company invested a decade of research into the project.