a Hunter coal expansion a climate bomb
| Key Points |
|
Greg Mullins spent fifty years pulling communities back from burning ridgelines across New South Wales.
He has watched floodwaters rise through towns he once protected as a serving commissioner.
Retirement never quietened his warnings about worsening fire and flood seasons statewide.
In July, he stood before the NSW Independent Planning Commission in Branxton alongside dozens of local voices.
He warned that approving the Hunter Valley Operations expansion would push more Australians into danger.[1]
Behind him sat bushfire survivors, farmers and an anxious real estate agent.
Glencore and Yancoal are seeking approval to extend two open-cut mines near Singleton in a joint venture. Together, the mines would extract 716 million tonnes of thermal coal for export markets. The scale makes it the largest coal proposal in state history.[1]
The HVO North pit would run until 2045, while HVO South would continue mining until 2042. Both operations were originally scheduled to close within the coming years. This application seeks two further decades of extraction.[1]
Lifecycle emissions from burning that coal are projected at more than 800 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. The Climate Council says this exceeds seven times the state's total annual pollution output. Few single projects anywhere in Australia carry a comparable climate footprint.[4]
Mullins, now serving as a Climate Councillor, told commissioners that coal exported from the Hunter eventually returns home as disaster. He described fire seasons growing longer and more ferocious across his five-decade career. His testimony framed the project as a direct threat.[1]
Climate scientists linked to the Climate Council argue rising global emissions are already lengthening fire seasons across eastern Australia. Warmer, drier conditions dry out fuel loads earlier each year. Ignition risk now stretches across more months than a generation ago.[4]
The Hunter and Mid North Coast experienced major flooding in May 2025, displacing families and damaging infrastructure. That single event sat within a run of disasters costing insurers close to $1.8 billion nationally that year. Recovery efforts stretched well into the following months.[3]
Mullins argued emergency crews are being stretched thin by overlapping disasters across the state. He said NSW communities are being struck repeatedly within short spans of years. Volunteer brigades increasingly face back-to-back deployments with little recovery time.[1]
A third of the Newcastle local government area is now designated flood-prone land, according to hearing testimony. That share is steadily rising as rainfall intensity increases across the wider catchment. Planners describe the shift in flood exposure as historically unprecedented.[3]
The Climate Council wants the commission to reject HVO outright on climate grounds. It argues the body carries both the power and the duty to weigh climate harm. Chief executive Amanda McKenzie has called the project a climate bomb repeatedly.[4]
A landmark Court of Appeal ruling on the nearby Mount Pleasant mine found regulators must properly assess downstream emissions. This obligation applies even when the exported coal is ultimately burned overseas. The ruling overturned an earlier, narrower assessment approach.[2]
That precedent now touches at least eighteen coal proposals moving through the NSW planning pipeline. It reshapes how every subsequent application will be scrutinised by decision-makers. Grassroots legal groups view the ruling as a genuine turning point.[2]
Analysts have separately found the federal Safeguard Mechanism, meant to cut industrial pollution, is falling short of its design. Some coal miners bank tradeable credits while their emissions intensity actually rises. A federal review of the scheme's settings is now underway.[6]
Glencore says the joint venture supported around 1500 direct jobs across the region in 2024. The company reports contributing roughly one billion dollars to the local economy that year. Proponents cite these figures as central to their approval case.[5]
Muswellbrook Shire Council has told the commission it wants the region eventually freed from permanent coal dependence. Transition planning remains at an early stage, council representatives conceded at the hearing. Local opinion on the pace of that transition still varies considerably.[3]
Parents for Climate chief executive Nic Seton argued that global coal demand is already declining steadily. He said continued dependence poorly serves Hunter families over the long term. Approving the mine, he argued, delays necessary economic diversification.[3]
Insured losses from extreme weather across NSW reached almost $3.5 billion in 2025 alone. The Insurance Council projects annual costs climbing toward $35 billion nationally within a decade. Newcastle buyers now face flood quotes reaching $14,000 a year.[7]
The Hunter fight sits inside a much wider national pattern of contested approvals. The Australian Conservation Foundation is challenging federal approval of Woodside's North West Shelf gas extension. That licence now runs all the way to 2070.[8]
That single project alone could generate close to four billion tonnes of lifecycle emissions. The Federal Court heard arguments over its environmental assessment in July. A ruling could set precedent for future gas approvals nationally.[8]
Beetaloo Basin fracking in the Northern Territory has also drawn sustained legal challenge from environmental groups. Courts have so far allowed exploratory drilling to continue despite these objections. Further hearings are expected later in the year.[9]
Advocacy groups including Lock the Gate Alliance and Environmental Justice Australia argue these approvals accumulate rapidly across jurisdictions. They say the overall pattern undermines Australia's stated commitments under the Paris Agreement. International observers, including trading partners, are increasingly taking note.[9]
The Hunter Valley Operations decision will test whether NSW planning law can genuinely weigh climate consequences. A firefighter's warning, a court precedent and an insurer's spreadsheet now point toward the same uncomfortable conclusion. Institutions built decades ago are being asked to judge risks they never anticipated.
Coal and gas expansion keeps arriving with promises of jobs and royalties. Yet the costs increasingly land on flood-prone streets and fire-exposed valleys, carried by families and volunteer crews rather than corporations. Communities near Branxton and Singleton now live that trade-off daily.
September's ruling alone will settle little of this broader tension. It will still reveal whether accountability, once demanded loudly enough, can reshape a governance system built for calmer times.
References
1. Former fire chief: reject NSW's biggest coal expansion. Climate Council report on Greg Mullins's testimony against the HVO expansion.
2. Australia's first climate case to reach the High Court. Media alert on the Mount Pleasant Court of Appeal ruling and its impact on NSW coal approvals.
3. Commission warned more coal, more insurance pain. Reporting on community and insurer testimony at the Branxton IPC hearing.
4. 800 million reasons to reject NSW's biggest coal mining proposal. Climate Council analysis of projected HVO lifecycle emissions.
5. Hunter Valley Operations Extension: What the 2026 IPC Decision Means. Overview of the project's approval status and economic contribution figures.
6. Coal and gas safeguard loopholes failing climate action. Reporting on Safeguard Mechanism baseline flaws ahead of its 2026-27 review.
7. Climate Change and Natural Hazards SEPP submission. Insurance Council of Australia data on NSW extreme weather losses.
8. New legal challenge over North West Shelf gas project. Environmental Justice Australia update on the ACF Federal Court case against Woodside's extension.
9. Australia's pariah projects. Market Forces overview of contested fossil fuel proposals including Beetaloo and Narrabri.
No comments :
Post a Comment