The Carmichael coal mine, proposed by Indian company Adani, is set to operate for 60 years and is predicted to emit more than 200 million tonnes of greenhouse gas throughout its lifetime. It received federal approval in July 2014.
The project includes an open cut and underground coal mine and a 189 km rail link to transport the coal from the Galilee Basin to Abbot Point, near the Great Barrier Reef.
The future of coal mining in the Galilee Basin has become a point of significant policy difference ahead of the Queensland election on January 31. The current Liberal National government has pledged “hundreds of millions of dollars” to partly fund new coal infrastructure in the Galilee Basin. The Labor opposition has now pledged to scrap that “unprecedented” taxpayer-funded offer to Adani if it wins the election.
Under the environmental assessment process, Hunt accounted for greenhouse gas emissions from extracting and transporting the coal, but not from burning it. Predictions suggest that this could produce an extra 130 million tonnes of greenhouse gases over the mine’s lifetime - a quarter of Australia’s annual emissions.
The court case will challenge the orthodox approach to the assessment of coal mine approvals. Emissions from burning coal have, to date, been largely considered too indirect and difficult to measure, and have therefore been left out of the assessment process.
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