Australia has for the first time rejected an application to open a coal mine on environmental grounds, with the government citing potential damage to the Great Barrier Reef.
Australia’s environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, said on Thursday she would decide on individual projects based on merit.
“I will take every decision that comes to me on a case-by-case basis, in accordance with the law and in accordance with the available science,” Plibersek told parliament.
A day earlier, the minister had announced the decision to prevent the opening of the mine northwest of the city of Rockhampton, in the state of Queensland, and less than ten kilometers from the Great Barrier Reef, on the northeast coast of Australia.
The project would affect the area’s fresh water and potentially the fragile seagrass beds that feed dugongs, a marine mammal, and serve as nurseries for fish, Plibersek said.
The official said the risk of “contamination and irreversible damage to the reef is very real.”
“The Great Barrier Reef is responsible for about A$6 billion [3,9 mil milhões de euros] in economic activities every year, and about 64,000 jobs,” Plibersek said.
“Given the science before me, it was clear that the risks were simply too great,” he added.
The open pit mine would have an estimated annual excavation capacity of ten million tons of coal for 25 years.
The project was proposed by mining magnate Clive Palmer, who founded and finances the small conservative party United Australia.
A report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, published in November, recommended that the Great Barrier Reef be included in a list of sites in danger of extinction.
The document warns of the need for “ambitious, rapid and sustained” action, without which the world’s largest reef, included on UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 1981, is in danger.
The government of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, elected in May, legislated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 43% by 2030, while the previous executive had only envisaged a reduction of between 26% and 28%. by the end of the decade.
Home to 400 types of coral, 1,500 species of fish and 4,000 varieties of mollusks, the Great Barrier Reef began to deteriorate in the 1990s due to the impact of warming seawater and increased acidity due to the increasing presence of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere.
The government is under pressure to curb climate change and block all new coal and gas projects.
Australia is one of the world’s largest exporters of the two fossil fuels, the main sources of the country’s wealth.
Source: TSF
