Australia has blocked a major mine proposed near the Great Barrier Reef. Photo Unsplash/Francesco Ungaro
Australia has blocked a major mine proposed near the Great Barrier Reef. Photo Unsplash/Francesco Ungaro

Australia rejects first coal mine under environmental law

Ben Westcott

Top coal exporter Australia has blocked a major mine proposed near the Great Barrier Reef under environmental laws.

Environment minister Tanya Plibersek announced her final decision on the Central Queensland Coal Project on Twitter yesterday, saying in a video that she had received more than 9 000 public submissions on the mine in just 10 business days.

It is the first time that an Australian minister has rejected a proposed coal mine under the country’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

That marks a major turnaround for Australia, long seen as a global climate laggard and one of the world’s biggest per-capita polluters because of its huge coal and natural gas export industries.

“I’ve decided that the adverse environmental impacts are simply too great,” Plibersek said in her Twitter message.

“The mine is an open cut coal mine less than 10 kilometers from the Great Barrier Reef and the risk of pollution and irreversible damage to the Reef is very real.”

Raft of projects

Coal is Australia’s biggest export after iron ore and the proposed mine was among a raft of projects that would significantly increase emissions in the nation.

Central Queensland Coal proposed extracting as much as 10 million tons of thermal and coking coal a year over a lifespan of about 24 years, according to the Queensland government. The project is owned by Clive Palmer, a vocal businessman who has used his mining sector fortune to make forays into politics. Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of metallurgical coal and only trails Indonesia in shipments of thermal coal.

The centre-left labour government elected in May has been attempting to step up Australia’s action on climate change, pledging to reduce emissions by 43% by 2030 from 2005 levels. – Fin24/Bloomberg

Comments

Namibian Sun 2024-11-08

No comments have been left on this article

Please login to leave a comment

#N/A Currency: GBP to NAD 22.63 | EUR to NAD 18.85 | CNY to NAD 2.44 | USD to NAD 17.49 | DZD to NAD 0.13 | AOA to NAD 0.02 | BWP to NAD 1.25 | EGP to NAD 0.35 | KES to NAD 0.13 | NGN to NAD 0.01 | ZMW to NAD 0.63 | ZWL to NAD 0.04 | BRL to NAD 3.06 | RUB to NAD 0.18 | INR to NAD 0.21 | USD to DZD 132.85 | USD to AOA 909.05 | USD to BWP 13.4 | USD to EGP 49.25 | USD to KES 129.2 | USD to NGN 1680.41 | USD to ZAR 17.47 | USD to ZMW 27.15 | USD to ZWL 321 | Stock Exchange: JSE All Share Index Same 0 | Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX) Overall Index 1878.29 Up +1.09% | Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE) MASI 14487.67 Up +1.33% | Egyptian Exchange (EGX) 30 Index 31267.47 Up +0.72% | Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) DCI Same 0 | NSX: MTC 7.75 SAME | Anirep 8.99 SAME | Capricorn Investment group 17.34 SAME | FirstRand Namibia Ltd 49 DOWN 0.50% | Letshego Holdings (Namibia) Ltd 4.1 UP 2.50% | Namibia Asset Management Ltd 0.7 SAME | Namibia Breweries Ltd 31.49 UP 0.03% | Nictus Holdings - Nam 2.22 SAME | Oryx Properties Ltd 12.1 UP 1.70% | Paratus Namibia Holdings 11.99 SAME | SBN Holdings 8.45 SAME | Trustco Group Holdings Ltd 0.48 SAME | B2Gold Corporation 47.34 DOWN 1.50% | Local Index closed 677.62 UP 0.12% | Overall Index closed 1534.6 DOWN 0.05% | Osino Resources Corp 19.47 DOWN 2.41% | Commodities: Gold US$ 2 692.52/OZ DOWN -0.0053 | Copper US$ 4.33/lb DOWN -0.0206 | Zinc US$ 3 004.80/T DOWN -1.88% | Brent Crude Oil US$ 75.28/BBP DOWN -0.0084 | Platinum US$ 982.39/OZ DOWN -0.0148 #N/A