NSW court blocks state’s largest coal expansion after challenge by environment group
Lisa Cox
Leaving parliament for a moment, the New South Wales court of appeal has overturned the approval of the largest coalmine expansion in the state after a community environment group successfully argued the planning commission failed to consider the impact of all of the project’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The decision is a significant blow for Mach Energy’s Mount Pleasant coalmine expansion in Muswellbrook in the upper Hunter and one that climate groups say could have wider implications for future fossil fuel project proposals in NSW.
The court found the Independent Planning Commission was required and failed to consider the impacts of all carbon pollution associated with the project on the local environment, including from the exported emissions – known as scope three emissions – when the coal is sold and burned overseas. The commission approved the expansion in 2022.
Wendy Wales, the president of the Denman, Aberdeen, Muswellbrook, Scone Healthy Environment Group (Dams Heg) that brought the case, welcomed the court’s decision:
It shouldn’t be up to a small community group like Dams Heg to fight this global battle, but in the absence of meaningful government action to protect us from climate harm arising from coalmines, we felt we had no choice but to stand up for our children and grandchildren, the public interest, the rule of law and nature itself.
The matter will now return to the NSW land and environment court to consider whether conditions can be imposed that would validate the approval or whether the project must return to the planning commission.
The planning commission said it respected the decision of the court of appeal.
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#NoMoreCoal