Australia's Controversial Adani Coal Mine Gets Final Government Approval

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The Adani Carmichael coal mine โ€” one of the most controversial fossil fuel projects in Australiaโ€™s history โ€” has been handed its final environmentalย approval.

Based in Queensland, the Indian-owned mine has been beset by controversy after gaining its first set of approvals back in 2014, sparking a nationwide โ€œStop Adaniโ€ movement and multiple legalย challenges.

Initially proposed as a massive 60 million metric ton per year mine, the project, including a rail line, has since been downscaled and is expected to export an initial 10 million metric tons per year, with plans to ramp up to about 27 million metric tonsย annually.

Adani jumped its final legal hurdle on Thursday, when the Queensland state government passed the mineโ€™s underground water plans.ย 

Adani mine camp
Adani mine camp. Credit:ย Jeremy Buckingham,ย CC BYย 2.0

Extinctionย Risk

Scientists have warned the mine could cause one of the worldโ€™s last unspoiledย desert oases โ€” the Doongmabulla Springs โ€” to dry up.ย The mine also risks the survival of the endangered black-throated finch.

Environmentalists and politicians with the countryโ€™s Green party have pledged to keep fighting, pointing to the potential for more legal challenges.ย Australiaโ€™s environmental laws do not take into account the impacts of projects on climateย change.

Earlier this year, it was revealed the company had hired a legal team to carry out a โ€œtrained attack dogโ€ strategy that would target opponents of theย mine.ย 

Australian Youth Climate Coalition spokesperson Olivia Hill said: โ€œIf Adani think that theyโ€™ll be able to start work on this mine without a fight, theyโ€™ve got another thingย coming.

โ€œA powerful community movement involving millions of people across the continent has held off this destructive project for the last six years and weโ€™re never backingย down.โ€

Campaign group Market Forces also targeted potential financial backers of the Adani mine, with more than 50 making public statements distancing themselves from theย project.

Adaniโ€™s coal will be exported through the companyโ€™s own port on an ironic route through the Great Barrier Reefย โ€” which is already suffering climate-related impacts from burning coal โ€” and out to Indian power stations where most of the coal will beย burned.

Carbonย Pulse

Another reason why Adani has become such a totem for climate change campaigners is what might come afterย it.ย 

The Adani mine will be the first in the massive untapped Galilee Basin in Queensland, opening up the prospects for at least five other large thermal coalย projects.

This means that the Adani mine risks sparking the release of a large pulse of carbon dioxide into theย atmosphere.

Greenpeace identified the Galilee Basin area in its 2014 โ€œPoint of No Returnโ€ report as one of 14 dirty energy projects that were โ€œin direct conflict with a livableย climate.โ€

Another analysis suggested that if all the projects proposed for the basin were to go ahead, including the larger version of Adaniโ€™s project, this would represent about 10 percent of globalย emissions.

Reefย Risk

Researcher diving to observe dead and bleached coral on Great Barrier Reef.
A researcher from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies surveys the bleached/dead corals at Zenith Reef,in the northern section of the Great Barrier Reef, November 2016.
Credit: Andreas Dietzel,ย CC BYNDย 2.0

Since the Queensland project was first raised, the stateโ€™s iconic Great Barrier Reef has been hit with back-to-back mass coral bleaching events that killed up to half the corals in the reefโ€™s central and northernย sections.

The reef is a major contributor to Australiaโ€™s economy, with a 2017 Deloitte Access Economics report finding the World Heritage icon contributed AU$6.4 billion a year to the economy and supported 64,000ย jobs.

Shani Tager, Great Barrier Reef campaign manager at the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said: โ€œAs custodians of the worldโ€™s greatest coral reef system, Queensland and Australia has to lead by example and show thereโ€™s a bright future for everybody thatโ€™s beyond coal. Instead, theyโ€™ve approved a new fossil fuel project which will put more pressure on ourย Reef.โ€

Adaniโ€™s lobbyists, its directors, and its owner, Gautam Adani, have lobbied the countryโ€™s state and federal governments long and hard over theย mine.

The Adani mine became a focal point for last monthโ€™s national elections in Australia, particularly in regional Queensland where politicians have touted the prospect of hundreds of new jobs for theย area.

Emma Briggs, a spokesperson for Frontline Action on Coal, said: โ€œIf the railway line is built, Adaniโ€™s mine will be followed by Palmerโ€™s, Rinehartโ€™s, and others, meaning Australiaโ€™s greenhouse [gas] emissions will more than double and any hope of averting the worst effects of climate breakdown will beย lost.

โ€œThese automated mines will not provide the jobs people need. We need a fair transition into a renewable energy economy and when the government fails us we must take personal action to ensure thisย happens.โ€

Graham Readfearn has been reporting on theย Galilee Basin and its climate change implications forย DeSmog and other outlets since 2013.ย  He now also works as a media advisor for the charityย Australian Marine Conservationย Society.

Main image: Melbourne, Australia, School Strike for Climate rally. Credit:ย Stop Adani,ย CC BYย 2.0

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