The Land and Environment Court today ruled the Independent Planning Commission’s (IPC) approval of the Narrabri Coal Mine expansion was legally reasonable.
The Narrabri underground coal mine has been operating since 2012 and employs around 500 people, most of whom live in the region. The extension of the project will lengthen the mine’s life by 13 years to 2044 and increase the total coal mined from 170 million to 280 million tonnes.
The mine will include some of the longest (10km) and widest (400m) underground longwalls in Australia.
Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action (BSCA), represented by the Environmental Defenders Office, had sought a judicial review of the IPC’s April 2022 approval of the Whitehaven Coal project.
It has been estimated that the Narrabri coal mine expansion will generate 480 million tonne CO2-e in emissions, roughly equal to Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions in 2022 (487Mt CO2-e).
BSCA said even if they can accept the argument that the scope 3 emissions should be accounted for by the countries that burn the coal, this is a highly methane polluting mine, releasing 32Mt CO2-e in scope 1 emissions.
“The IPC accepted this but relied upon the hope of future, uncertain technology to reduce methane levels.”
BSCA spokesperson Fiona Lee said: “We are disappointed by the outcome. Sadly, this shows that planning decisions today are out of step with community expectations because approving high emitting projects is exposing communities to more extreme impacts from climate change.
“We believe it is unreasonable for planning authorities to approve projects with such a massive climate footprint at a time when greenhouse gas emissions must be rapidly reduced to limit the devastating impacts of global warming.”
Earlier this year, the NSW Environment Protection Agency was the first agency in the country to introduce a climate policy, which it was required to do as a result of landmark court action taken by BSCA.
BSCA are carefully considering the Court’s judgement.
The NSW Land and Environment Court decision can be accessed here.
The Independent Planning Commission’s Statement of Reasons can be accessed here.
