PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) has welcomed an announcement by the New South Wales government that it will introduce legislation to stop planning authorities from blocking coal mine developments based on the emissions from the coal once it has been burnt.
Resources Minister John Barilaro reportedly said that the new laws would prevent “the regulation of overseas, or scope-three, greenhouse gas emissions” in mining approvals.
Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions are classified as greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of coal once it is sold into the market, including into the overseas market.
“The government has a very clear policy when it comes to the consideration of scope-three emissions and this will now be enshrined in legislation and through changes to the Mining State Environmental Planning Policy,” Barilaro said.
The MCA on Wednesday said that the decision to introduce legislation provided certainty for minerals industry project approvals.
“Regulatory creep and overreach – including the use of regulation by unelected bodies to block mining projects and the jobs and prosperity they bring to regional communities – is a serious concern in the regulation of the minerals sector across Australia,” said MCA CEO Tania Constable.
She pointed out that the MCA had previously urged the New South Wales government to take action on this important issue.
In August, the MCA made a submission to the Independent Planning Commission (IPC) on the United Wambo project which stated that to safeguard the credibility of project approval processes, the IPC should not impose conditions relating to scope 3 emissions on mining project approvals.
In the submission, the MCA stated that the creation of arbitrary conditions on exports and a proposal to require the management of the emissions of foreign sovereign nations – as advanced by the IPC – would both undermine good management of Australia's exports and the operation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
“Nations have agreed to take responsibility for national emissions, and it is neither practical nor plausible for a state government agency to determine or manage the responses of other nations,” Constable said.