A "game-changing" court decision blocking a coal mine in part because of its climate change impacts will stand after the project proponent dropped plans to appeal against the verdict.
Gloucester Resources had until Wednesday to oppose the rejection by the NSW Land and Environment Court in February of its proposed Rocky Hill coal mine near the town of Gloucester on the state's Mid North Coast.
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| A win is a win - finally: Gloucester residents opposed to the nearby Rocky Hill coal project proposal may finally get some peace. Credit: Janie Barrett |
"This means the Rocky Hill Coal Mine will not proceed," it said, adding the company would carry out "further assessment of its current exploration licences in the area".
Groundswell Gloucester - the group that had earlier fought off AGL's 330-well coal seam project near the town - welcomed the decision not to appeal.
"This is great news for a small town that has had this mine proposal hanging over its head for [more than] 10 years," John Watts, a spokesman for the group, said. "It was always an ill-considered idea, which should have been rejected years ago."
David Morris, head of the Environmental Defenders Office of NSW, said the court's rejection of the mine partly on the basis of its contribution to global warming had created reverberations "felt across this country and around the world". The lack of an appeal now removed "any doubt of its legal validity".
"This is the leading case for how decision-makers should take into consideration a project's impact on climate change, and on the social health and wellbeing and cultural health of a community," he said.
The NSW government should now act to codify the decision to ensure other fossil-fuel projects in the state have to include similar assessments of the warming impacts in the planning approval process, Mr Morris said.
Environmental group Lock the Gate said the government should take "this historic opportunity" to consider two other new NSW coal mines - United Wambo and Bylong - now under consideration by the Independent Planning Commission "in a new light".
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| New NSW Energy and Environment Minister Matt Kean tells Parliament on Wednesday that he plans to take climate change seriously. Credit: Nick Moir |
The Herald sought comment about the court decision from the state's new Energy and Environment Minister Matt Kean and Planning Minister Rob Stokes.
Climate litigation is dubbed as a "new weapon" to force companies and countries to take greenhouse gas emissions into account, with more than 1000 cases before various courts around the world.
Climate stance shifting
The NSW Coalition government under Premier Gladys Berejiklian has indicated it will give greater attention to climate and other environmental issues after it was re-elected last month.
On Wednesday, Mr Kean used the first question time of the new Parliament to describe the new global report out this week into accelerating species extinction as "an important wake-up call for all of us".
Mr Kean added that "there is no greater risk to our environment than climate change", and a new climate department would ensure "NSW is playing its part in reaching the Paris goal" of limiting warming to less than 2 degrees of pre-industrial levels.
Julie Lyford, chairwoman of Groundswell Gloucester, said "affected residents are absolutely delighted that they can now get on with their lives. The uncertainty and anxious waiting is over.
"With climate change threatening everyone and everything on the planet, we owe it to this and future generations to step away from fossil fuels, embrace renewables and work towards just transitions," she said.
Links
- 'We Won': Landmark Climate Ruling As NSW Court Rejects Coal Mine
- Gloucester’s Rocky Hill Coal Mine 'Climate Change' Hearing Begins
- Climate Change - The Gathering Legal And Policy Storm In Australia And Its Impact On The Energy And Resources Sector
- These Residents Stopped A Coal Mine, Made History And Sent Ripples Through Boardrooms Around The World
- Climate Change In Court
- 'Dire consequences': Court's mine rejection sets a climate precedent
- Climate Change Activists Worldwide Look To Courts As A Powerful New Ally
- Climate Change Could Destroy His Home In Peru. So He Sued An Energy Company In Germany.
- Legal Protections Urged As Science Gears Up To Aid Great Barrier Reef
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- Climate Change: Top Lawyer Says Councils May Soon Be Liable For Climate Damage
- Environmental Groups Take France To Court Over Climate Change Inaction
- Trump’s Climate Policies Face 6 Big Legal Battles This Year
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- Climate Change-Related Litigation Was Once Seen As A Joke, But It Could Soon Become Business Reality
- Around The World
- Australia's Coal Future Under Threat As More Changes Hit Fossil Fuels Globally
- As Lawsuits Over Climate Change Heat Up, Oil Industry Steps Up Attacks On Its Critics
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