“The ambitious targets of the Paris Agreement are completely incompatible with opening up new fossil fuel projects. It’s absurd for Australia to give special privileges to a coal mine as the global agreement enters into force[1],” said Greenpeace Australia Pacific Reef Campaigner, Shani Tager.
“Paving the way for Australia’s largest coal mine just after the reef has suffered the worst coral bleaching in its history is indefensible.
“A project of this size, scale and controversy needs proper scrutiny, not to be pushed blindly through the approval process.
“The Queensland government is supposed to be protecting the reef, but instead it’s pushing through coal mines that will endanger it.”
Despite the latest government support, the Carmichael project remains in financial disarray and faces legal challenges as well as a coal market in structural decline.
“This mine does not have any of the finances it needs to proceed. International investors have shunned Carmichael because funding it would be a major financial risk,” Ms Tager added.
The proposed mine would be 28,000 hectares and if it ever got to full production, the Carmichael coal mine would put 121m tonnes of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere each year.
NOTES
[1] The Sky’s Limit: Why the Paris Climate Goals Require a Managed Decline of Fossil Fuel Production.http://priceofoil.org/2016/09/22/the-skys-limit-report/