The Great Barrier Reef
Australia has rejected a major coal mine planned near the Great Barrier Reef, saying the environmental risks were “simply too great".
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek announced her final decision on the Central Queensland Coal Project on Twitter on Wednesday, saying in a video that she had received more than 9 000 public submissions on the mine in just 10 business days.
“I’ve decided that the adverse environmental impacts are simply too great,” Plibersek said in her Twitter message. “The mine is an open cut coal mine less than 10 km from the Great Barrier Reef and the risk of pollution and irreversible damage to the Reef is very real.”
Coal is Australia’s biggest export after iron ore and the proposed mine was among a raft of projects that would significantly increase emissions in the nation, already one of the world’s biggest per-capita polluters. It is the first time that an Australian minister has rejected a proposed coal mine under the country’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
The project proposed extracting as much as 10-million tons of thermal and coking coal a year over a lifespan of about 24 years, according to the Queensland government.
Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of metallurgical coal and only trails Indonesia in shipments of thermal coal. The center-left Labor government which was elected in May has been attempting to step up Australia’s action on climate change, pledging to reduce emissions by 43% by 2030 from 2005 levels.