Adanis face legal challenge to Aussie coalmining venture, say it's designed to "frustrate" approved project
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| Site of the coalmining project |
In a fresh trouble for the Adanis’ ambitious coalmining project in Australia, the Central Queensland community organisation, the country’s Mackay Conservation Group (MCG), has launched court proceedings challenging Environment Minister Greg Hunt and the the Adani Enterprises over the approval of the controversial Carmichael coal mine in Queensland. South Asia Times (SAT) News Service of Australia quotes a statement posted on the Adani Australia’s website to point towards how the company is ragged by the latest development.
The Adani Australia statement says, “This legal challenge initiated by the Mackay Conservation Group, and funded by Getup, is an act designed to frustrate progress on an approved project, and reflects dissatisfaction with the Minister’s decision, rather than a genuine concern in regards to the assessment process.”
The statement further says, “It makes crystal clear that this is not an action dealing with the merits of a process that saw the strictest environmental conditions imposed in Australian history- rather, it is a highly politicised action by professional activists determined to put to an end the coal industry in Queensland and the jobs it delivers to our state.”
MCG has called upon the court to scrap the July 2014 approval to the mine on the grounds the Minister failed under his duty laid down by the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act to take down stream greenhouse gas emissions from the mine into account, reports SAT News Service.
“By approving Adani’s Carmichael proposal, the Australian Government is in major breach of its own environmental regulations,” Ellen Roberts, coordinator at the MCG, has been quoted as saying. “It is unacceptable at this time that any responsible government should wilfully ignore the climate implications of what could be one of the most polluting mines in the world.”
“If it proceeds, at full capacity, the Carmichael mine would export 60 million tonnes per year (Mtpa) of thermal coal from the Galilee Basin to India, via the port of Abbot Point on the Great Barrier Reef coast”, SAT News Agency said, adding, “When burnt, coal from the Carmichael mine will produce 128.4 million tonnes of carbon emissions per year at peak production, or four times the total carbon emissions of New Zealand.”
“Queenslanders are being held hostage to the government’s desire to burnish its own image of ‘getting things done. Sabotaging farmland, water supplies and the Great Barrier Reef for the exaggerated short-term benefits of this mine – most of which would flow offshore – defies good policy and common sense,” says Roberts.
“In the face of climate change and the devastating effects of this mine on farmland, water supplies and the Great Barrier Reef, we simply must do everything we can to hold our government to account”, he adds.
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