A legal challenge by conservation groups to stop one of Australia’s largest proposed greenfield coal projects in Queensland’s Bowen Basin has begun in the state’s land court.<\/p>\n
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) and Mackay Conservation Group (MCG) have lodged an application in the Land Court of Queensland, objecting to Whitehaven Coal’s Winchester South open-cut coal mine.<\/p>\n
The $1 billion project is expected to produce up to 17 million tonnes of coal a year over its 28-year life span.<\/p>\n
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The conservation groups are arguing the mine should not be approved due to its significant environmental and human rights impacts. (ABC News: Lucas Hill)<\/p>\n
The open-cut mine \u2014 set to be located 30 kilometres south-east of Moranbah \u2014 would extract mostly metallurgical coal, used to make steel, and thermal coal.<\/p>\n
It would involve the construction of a coal processing plant and a rail loop to connect with the existing Bowen Basin coal rail network.<\/p>\n
The two environmental groups are expected to argue the court should recommend against the project being granted a mining lease and environmental authority due to its significant environmental and human rights impacts.<\/p>\n
ACF climate and energy project manager, Gavan McFadzean, said the project would generate at least 583 million tonnes of climate pollution.<\/p>\n
“It’s a coal project that will emit more emissions than Australia does in an entire year,” he said outside court in Brisbane before the hearing.<\/p>\n
“New coal projects simply cannot be approved, if we’re to stay within a 1.5 degree [Celsius] pathway.”<\/p>\n
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Gavan McFadzean says climate disaster records are being broken around the world. (ABC News: Lucas Hill)<\/p>\n
MCG climate campaigner Imogen Lindenberg said local communities needed to be protected from the impacts of climate change.<\/p>\n
“We are already living in a time of climate catastrophes, we can’t afford to keep making the same mistakes again and again,” she said.<\/p>\n
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Imogen Lindenberg says communities need to be protected from the effects of climate change. (ABC News: Lucas Hill)<\/p>\n
“We can’t afford to keep opening brand new coal mines if we’re to protect our land, water, climate and our communities.<\/p>\n
“We are fighting to protect them from fossil fuel companies digging up coal in our backyard in the Bowen Basin.”Whitehaven says ‘right project’ in ‘right place’<\/p>\n
Whitehaven Coal says the Winchester South project would support 500 jobs during construction and operation.<\/p>\n
Whitehaven Coal’s barrister Saul Holt KC told the court in his opening remarks, he would outline over the course of the hearing why this was the “right project, in the right place, by the right miner, at the right time.”<\/p>\n