{"id":19206,"date":"2025-07-24T19:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T19:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/19206\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T19:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T19:02:08","slug":"significant-legal-breakthrough-as-nsw-court-blocks-states-largest-coal-expansion-over-emissions-new-south-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/19206\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Significant legal breakthrough\u2019 as NSW court blocks state\u2019s largest coal expansion over emissions | New South Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New South Wales<\/a> 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\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n

The decision<\/a> is a significant blow for MACH Energy\u2019s Mount Pleasant coalmine expansion in Muswellbrook in the upper Hunter and one that climate advocates say could have wider implications for future fossil fuel project proposals in NSW.<\/p>\n

The court found the independent planning commission was required and failed to consider the impacts of all emissions associated with the project on the local environment, including from the exported emissions \u2013 known as scope 3 emissions \u2013 when the coal is sold and burnt overseas.<\/p>\n

The commission approved the Mount Pleasant mine expansion in 2022. The project would double the mine\u2019s coal output to 21m tonnes per annum until 2048 and 98% of the projected emissions are scope 3 emissions.<\/p>\n

The Denman Aberdeen Muswellbrook Scone Healthy Environment Group (DAMS HEG) unsuccessfully appealed against the decision in the land and environment court last year but the court of appeal found in the group\u2019s favour on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

Wendy Wales, the group\u2019s president, welcomed the decision and said the burning of fossil fuels was causing increasingly destructive weather events globally, including in NSW.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur communities are enduring increasingly terrifying climate disasters, and nature is disappearing before our very eyes. Yet our governments are continuing to throw fuel on the fire by approving massive new coal projects like MACH Energy\u2019s Mount Pleasant,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton\u2019s Clear Air column as a free newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt shouldn\u2019t 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The matter will now return to the 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.<\/p>\n

DAMS HEG was represented in the appeal by Johnson Legal and counsel team Naomi Sharp SC and Matthias Thompson.<\/p>\n

Elaine Johnson, the director of Johnson Legal, said the court had determined that it was the planning commission\u2019s job to consider the link between fossil fuel expansions and climate harm felt by local communities in NSW.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s decision has broad-ranging implications for all new and expanded fossil fuel projects in NSW. No longer can the NSW government say that climate impacts felt by local communities in NSW are divorced from the continued production of coal and gas in the state,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to see how further fossil fuel expansions will pass muster following today\u2019s decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Johnson said the judgment built on the landmark 2019 Rocky Hill finding<\/a> by the land and environment court, which cited climate change in its reasons for upholding a planning commission decision to reject Gloucester Resources\u2019 proposed Rocky Hill coalmine in the Hunter Valley.<\/p>\n

The NSW Greens spokesperson for planning and the environment, Sue Higginson, said the case was \u201ca significant legal breakthrough and will send shockwaves through a planning system and a government that has been failing to take real action to prevent climate breakdown\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court has ruled that the government bears responsibility for the emissions that they create as a result of the fossil fuel projects they approve,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a giant leap forward in holding our governments to account when it comes to the damage they are doing to our climate and local communities through waving through more coal and gas projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

The planning commission said it respected the decision of the court of appeal.<\/p>\n

The NSW planning minister, Paul Scully, acknowledged the court\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the matter has now been referred back to the Land and Environment Court for consideration, the government has no further comment to make on the decision at this stage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Guardian Australia has sought comment from MACH Energy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New South Wales court of appeal has overturned the approval of the largest coalmine expansion in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-19206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}