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Adani’s Carmichael project has been the focus of opposition by organizations ranging from the United Nations to green groups fighting new coal projects in the environmentally sensitive area.
Australia approved Thursday one of the world’s largest coal projects, backed by Adani Group, an Indian conglomerate with interests spanning mining, energy and logistics, dismissing the United Nations and scientists concerns over potential damaging effects to the nearby Great Barrier Reef.
The $12bn (A$16.5bn) Carmichael Coal Mine and Rail Project, in the untapped Galilee Basin, was temporarily blocked this Summer, but environment minister Greg Hunt said today work can continue subject to what he called “the strictest conditions in Australian history.”
First proposed in 2010, the Carmichael project will mine up and transport about 60 million tonnes of coal a year for export, mostly to India.
Critics call the approval of the mine, which will cover an area seven times the size of Sydney Harbour, a “grossly irresponsible” decision.
Minister Hunt said the 36 conditions he had imposed upon the Carmichael mine and its rail infrastructure project took into account “issues raised by the community and ensure that the proponent (Adani) must meet the highest environmental standards”.
The requirements include the compulsory implementation of all advice provided by an independent scientific committee. Adani will also have to protect and improve 31,000 hectares of southern black throated finch habitat, and will have to permanently monitor groundwater at a nearby wetland.
Long-dragged battle
Project location (Click on image to expand).
Coal port projects and expansions have been a source of controversy in recent years, with academics and environmental groups raising the issue of “irreparable damage” to the country’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
In 2012 UNESCO, the UN educational, scientific and cultural arm, sent an inspection team to the area, finding “a continuing decline in the quality of some parts” of the reef. However, the Queensland Resources Council was quick to snub the report.
Two years ago, more than 150 marine scientists from 33 institutions signed a letter warning Australian authorities of the mounting threats new coal ports and other industrial projects pose to the reef’s habitat.
Even Deutsche Bank refused last year to fund Adani’s plans to expand the port after the UN raised fresh on the world’s heritage site.
Some 100 million tonnes of coal will pass along the railway every year.
Local indigenous landowners, who are battling Adani in Australia’s Federal Court, also slammed the mine approval and described the state and federal governments’ actions as “economically and environmentally irresponsible and morally bankrupt”.
2 Comments
Johnrolce
Somebody was obviously bribed here.
JH
out of date information by the author. The reality is completely the opposite. Also note the reef has an area the size of italy – not some scratchy little atoll. The point being not to use hperbole and apply to the entire reef.
2 Jul 2015
Greg Hunt, the federal environment minister, has said a UN decision not to list the Great Barrier Reef as in danger shows that Australia is a “role model to the world” in environmental protection.
On Wednesday, the 21 nations on Unesco’s world heritage committee unanimously endorsed an earlier draft ruling that the reef stay off the in-danger list,
although Australia must report back on its recovery plans by December
next year.
Several nations praised Australia’s efforts to aid the ailing reef,
which is the world’s largest living structure but has lost around half
of its coral cover in the past 30 years.
Between them, the Australian and Queensland
governments have pledged to ban the dumping of dredged seabed sediment
within the reef’s world heritage area and to limit the expansion of
ports along the coast.
The federal government has put $140m towards a reef trust to improve
water quality, with a target of slashing the amount of nitrogen flowing
onto coral by 80% over the next decade.
The government’s scientists have warned that the reef is in poor and
deteriorating condition, with climate change the leading long-term
threat to the vast coral ecosystem.
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