Australia top court rules against coal mine expansion, citing climate harm

Campaigners say ruling sets a ‘binding national precedent’ requiring climate damage be weighed when fossil fuel projects are considered.Australia’s highest court has ruled against the expansion of a major coal mine, finding that planning authorities had failed to ensure that emissions of planet-warming Greenhouse Gases would be “minimised to the greatest extent practicable”.Environmental campaigners called Wednesday’s court decision the first climate case to reach the country’s highest court. They said it set a “binding national precedent” requiring climate damage be weighed when fossil fuel projects are considered.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Australia’s Great Barrier Reef hit by record bleaching as oceans warmlist 2 of 3World’s ‘fossil fuel obsession’ threatens billions of lives: Amnestylist 3 of 3South Africa to Australia: Why coal profits are surging during Iran warend of listIn the ruling, three of the High Court’s five judges found that the expansion of the Mount Pleasant mine in New South Wales must be halted. Planning authorities, they said, were obliged to consider granting consent only with conditions ensuring that all greenhouse gas emissions were minimised, and had not done so in this case.The case was brought by retired science teachers Wendy Wales and Tony Lonergan, who had fought for years to halt the planned mine expansion in Australia’s rural coal-digging heartland.“Today the High Court has said what we have always known,” Wales said in a statement. “We cannot dig up coal, ship it overseas, watch it drive Climate Change, and then pretend the consequences have nothing to do with us and won’t be felt by us.”The mine’s operator, Mach Energy, had sought to extend the life of the open-cut mine in the Hunter Valley by more than 20 years, to 2048, and to nearly double its annual output. Mach is owned by Droxford International, a subsidiary of Indonesia’s Salim Group.Mach argued that coal exported and burned overseas could not be clearly linked to environmental effects felt near the mine.