Late Tuesday night Environment Minister Plibersek approved three thermal coal mine expansions that will turbocharge the climate crisis by locking in 1.5 billion tonnes of carbon pollution - this is more than three times Australia’s total annual emissions. 

The Albanese Government published its decision on Tuesday, 24 Sep 2024, afternoon to approve three new large coal mining projects in NSW: Whitehaven Coal’s Narrabri thermal coal project to 2066, MACH Energy’s Mount Pleasant thermal coal project to 2058, and Yancoal’s Ashton coal project to 2064. 

This will create 1.4 billion tonnes of emissions, triple Australia’s annual emissions from all sources. The Albanese Government refused to consider the climate impacts of these massive coal projects. 

The Narrabri coal project will destroy 491 hectares of endangered koala habitat, and hundreds more for other threatened wildlife and plants.

How we respond today and this month really matters: so please speak up, get to an action at lunchtime, post on your channels, email your lists, give your local MP or Senator a call! 

There are a further 36 coal projects currently awaiting decision under Australia’s environment laws on Minister Plibersek’s desk and more gas projects. How we respond today will shape future decisions from governments and companies.

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Whitehaven Coal’s Narrabri coal mine expansion 

Whitehaven Coal’s Narrabri Underground Stage 3 Extension project has been granted approval to extend the life of its existing Narrabri thermal coal mine through to 2066. A copy of the approval decision and the conditions attached to it is available here. The mine is located in Gomeroi country, near Narrabri NSW in the Gunnedah coal field adjacent to the Pilliga state forest. The approval decision is available here 

The project expansion will increase the annual thermal coal production from Narrabri, from the currently approved 11 million tonnes per annum to 13 million tonnes per annum. The project will mine an additional 110 million tonnes of coal.

Whitehaven’s mine is a major methane polluter. Narrabri coal mine’s direct emissions have more than doubled in the last three years. The Narrabri coal expansion will directly emit an average of 1.5m tonnes of CO2-equivalent a year, making it the dirtiest thermal coal mine in Australia (and in the top four most polluting coal mines in Australia). 

The Narrabri coal project will result in 491 million tonnes of emissions from direct emissions and from the burning of the coal its extracts - more than Australia’s total emissions from all sources in 2022 (463.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent). 

Minister Plibersek’s approval allows Whitehaven to clear hundreds of hectares of habitat for threatened species including:

• 457.4 hectares of endangered koala habitat 
• 421.6 ha of habitat for the critically endangered Regent Honeyeater
• 421.6 ha of Corben’s Long-eared Bat habitat
•  378.1 ha of Pilliga Mouse habitat
• 217.6 ha of Large-eared Pied Bat habitat
• 421.1 ha of Painted Honeyeater habitat 

The loss of a further 32.8 hectares of habitat for the endangered koala through the impacts of land subsidence from underground mining has also been permitted. In total Minister Plibersek has approved Whitehaven to destroy 490.2 hectares of koala habitat, an area equivalent to more than 240 MCG sized sporting fields.

The proposed mine expansion threatens the Pilliga state forest, a highly significant cultural site for the Gomeroi people. The mine is predicted to possibly destroy a number of significant Gomeroi cultural sites, including a major grinding groove site used by Gomeroi people. 

The Australia Institute’s coal mine tracker estimates the total greenhouse gas pollution from the Narrabri coal mine expansion would be equivalent to running an average sized coal power station for 68 years.  

MACH Energy’s Mount Pleasant coal project to 2058

The Mount Pleasant coal mine is an open cut thermal coal mining operation near Muswellbrook, on the land of the Wonnarua people  in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales. The mine is operated by MACH Energy who is wholly owned by Indonesian billionaire Anthoni Salim, Indonesia's biggest manufacturer of instant noodles.  The project’s approval decision is available here.  

The Albanese government’s approval will allow the Mount Pleasant coal mine to expand to become Australia’s largest export coal mine. The approval will allow MACH Energy to mine thermal coal until 2058 and double coal production from 10.5 million tonnes per annum to 21 million tonnes per annum.  

Twice the size of Adani’s Carmichael coal mine: The approval will allow MACH energy to scale up production to 21 million tonnes of coal per annum. Mount Pleasant can now expand to a size three times larger than the currently operating Adani mine and nearly double what Adani plans to build up to.

Nearly 1 billion tonnes of carbon pollution: According to MACH Energy, the expanded Mount Pleasant Coal mine will produce 874.17 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over its lifetime - nearly double Australia’s emissions from all sources in 2022 (463.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent). 

One expert described this as the equivalent of “1.7 million Hiroshima bombs worth of extra heat”. 

The Australia Institute’s coal mine tracker estimates the lifetime emissions from Mount Pleasant would be equivalent to running an average coal fired power station for 126 years.

The Traditional Owners of the land Mount Pleasant is on are the Wonnurua people. The plains clan of the Wonnurura people have been vocal opponents to the project. Their submission to the IPC raises concerns about a lack of consultation and the planned project’s destruction of significant cultural heritage sites, including a birthing site of women's law and customs.  

The Mount Pleasant coal mine expansion threatens a recently discovered species of legless lizard. Ecological surveys found the Hunter Valley Delma (Delma vescolineata) in the Mount Pleasant coal mine expansion area. After its discovery in the area planned for mining the lizard was determined to be a new species and was recently listed by Minister Plibersek as an endangered species. Minister Plibersek has approved the mine to clear the new species habitat. 

Yancoal’s Ashton coal project

• • Approved by the Albanese Government to mine coal until 2064 
  • The Ravensworth Mine Complex and Ashton Mine Complex are neighbouring open cut and underground coal mining complexes,)in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales (NSW). Yancoal owns the Ashton Mine and Glencore owns the neighbouring Ravensworth mine. 
  • Yancoal / Ashton Coal Operations Pty Ltd (ACOL) is seeking to re-open and extract unmined coal at the Ravensworth Underground Mine (RUM), which has been closed 6 since October 2014. 
  • The Project also seeks to mine additional coal at the existing Ashton coal mine. 
  • The approval allows Yancoal to produce an additional 25 million tonnes of coal for export and extend mining at the site until 2064. 
  • The project would produce approximately 68.75 million tonnes of carbon pollution from the burning of the coal that is exported. This is more than three times the emissions of the entire NSW agriculture sector in 2022, which was 20.2 MT CO2e. 

• The combustion emissions of 68.75 million tonnes of carbon pollution and the impact this would have on the climate and environment have not been assessed by the Albanese government because Australia’s environment law does not require consideration of how pollution caused by new fossil fuel projects can harm the environment.

• The EPBC approval decision is available here.  A detailed project brief is available here 

What’s the bigger context

There are a further 36 new coal mining projects awaiting decision on Minister Plibersek’s desk. When fossil fuel projects, like new coal mines, are referred for assessment, Australia’s environment law does not require consideration of how pollution caused by these projects can harm the environment. 

In the 25 years of operation of Australia’s EPBC Act, 740 fossil fuel projects have been approved without consideration and assessment of their climate impacts. Only one fossil fuel project has been refused under the EPBC Act. This means Australia approves 99.9% of fossil fuel projects.

The Federal Senate is set to debate the bills to reform Australia’s environment act, but under pressure from mining companies, Prime Minister Albanese is ruling out adding a climate trigger that would require the climate impacts of new fossil fuel projects to be considered in environmental assessments. Prime Minister Albanese claims Australia doesn't need a climate trigger to consider climate change when assessing new coal mines for approval under Australia’s environment laws because we have the Safeguard Mechanism. 

The Safeguard Mechanism was introduced by the Coalition under Tony Abbott. The scheme sets so-called ‘emissions limits’ or baselines for coal mines that they need to comply with to reduce direct emissions. If a coal company exceeds its emissions limit / baseline it can simply purchase ‘carbon credits’ to offset this pollution instead of working to achieve genuine emissions reductions. This means new coal mines can actually increase their direct emissions instead of reducing them and just buy their way out of it with unlimited use of carbon offsets that cover up their pollution. So the government can approve new coal mines with no evidence that emissions will actually be reduced. 

The vast majority of pollution from coal mines is caused by the burning of the coal after it is dug up and exported overseas.  The Safeguard Mechanism does not assess these emissions,  it only counts emissions produced through the process of digging up the coal, not from burning the coal. This means most of the pollution produced by new coal and gas mines is not considered under the Safeguard Mechanism and is ignored. 

Minister Plibersek is also hosting the first Global Nature Positive Summit in Sydney from October 8-10 where the eyes of the world will be on Australia and its record on environmental protection and climate action.  

In the lead of the Global Nature Positive Summit Minister Plibersekisalso due to make decisions on a number of new coal mines including: 

• Imminent decision on Idemitsu’s Boggabri coal expansion project in NSW
• A decision on BHP Mitsubishi’s Caval Ridge coal expansion project in QLD by October 11