New York Times - Jacqueline Williams
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An enormous
expansion at Abbot Point, Australia’s most northern deep water coal
port, is planned as part of a controversial mining project. David Maurice Smith for The New York Times
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ABBOT POINT, Australia — In a desolate corner of
northeastern Australia, about 100 miles from the nearest town, a grassy
stretch of prime grazing land sits above a vein of coal so rich and deep
that it could be mined for decades.
The
Australian government is considering a proposal to build one of the
world’s largest coal mines in this remote locale, known as the Galilee
Basin, where acacia and eucalyptus trees grow wild between scattered
creeks.
An Indian conglomerate, the Adani Group,
has asked for a taxpayer-financed loan of as much as $800 million to
make the enormous project viable, promising to create thousands of jobs
in return.
But the plan has met intense opposition
in Australia and abroad, focusing attention on a question with global
resonance: Given the threat of climate change and
the slowing global demand for coal, does the world really need another giant mine, especially at the public’s expense?
Adani has proposed building six open-cut pits and
five underground complexes capable of producing as much as 66 million
tons of coal a year. New infrastructure to support the mine — a rail
line to the coast and an expanded port — would also make it economically
feasible to extract coal from at least eight additional sites in the
Galilee Basin.
That
could more than double coal output in Australia, which already produces
more coal than any other nation except China, the United States and
India. About 88 percent of the 487 million tons of coal mined annually
in Australia is exported.
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Mick
Derrick, center, a volunteer from the North Queensland Conservation
Council, conducting a survey in Townsville, Queensland, about the
proposed Adani coal mine. David Maurice Smith for The New York Times
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For many environmentalists, what happens in this
mining case is a test of the world’s commitment to fighting climate
change. Its failure would register as an unmistakable sign of an
international shift away from the fossil fuels behind climate change.
But if Australia agrees to subsidize the mine — even though several
commercial banks have shunned it — the project would demonstrate the
lasting allure and influence of the coal industry.
“How
it can be constructed — at a time when the whole world is committed to
move away from fossil fuels — is madness that most people just can’t
understand,” said Geoffrey Cousins, president of the Australian
Conservation Foundation.
The project, known as the
Carmichael mine, has provoked strong resistance in part because of its
proximity to the Great Barrier Reef, a natural wonder that is already
dying because of overheated seawater blamed on climate change. Adani
plans to deliver most of the coal to India on shipping routes that
critics say would further damage the ecosystem of the world’s greatest
system of reefs.
The debate over the mine has
dominated headlines in Australia for months and fueled one of the most
fervent environmental campaigns in the nation’s history. Protests have
grown in size and frequency, and polls show Australians
who oppose the mine outnumber those who support it by more than two-to-one.
A group of Indigenous Australians is also challenging Adani’s claim to the land.
But
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull supports the project, and it just needs
financing to proceed. A government agency established to support
private-sector infrastructure investment is reviewing Adani’s loan
request, and the company has said it is also lining up money overseas.
“This is a tipping point,” said Maree Dibella, a coordinator of the
North Queensland Conservation Council, referring to the mine’s role in
the global campaign against coal.
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The
Collinsville coal mine, the oldest in Queensland. Proponents of a new
mine say it would bring thousands of jobs to Queensland. David Maurice Smith for The New York Times
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Around the Galilee Basin, where a population of less
than 20,000 is scattered across an area the size of Britain, opinion is
divided.
Bruce
Currie, a cattle farmer who lives near the site and has traveled to
India to investigate Adani’s record, said he is worried the mine will
drain too much groundwater, calling it “yet another burden our small
business has to bear.”
Several hours drive north
in Collinsville, one of the area’s oldest mining communities, Roderick
Macdonald, 57, a retired miner, said Adani had come to the town
promising to build mining camps and employ local people.
“From what I can hear and see, Mr. Adani’s going to do nothing for this town,” Mr. Macdonald said, referring to
Gautam Adani, the billionaire founder and chairman of the company.
But
others in the region are more hopeful. Mining accounts for as much as 7
percent of the Australian economy, and the northeastern state of
Queensland, where the Galilee Basin lies, has suffered a downturn in
recent years because of slowing demand for natural resources, especially
from China.
“I need jobs for Queenslanders,” said the state’s premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, of the Adani proposal.
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Roderick
Macdonald, a retired miner in Collinsville, Queensland. “From what I can
hear and see,” he said, the proposed coal mine project would “do
nothing for this town.” David Maurice Smith for The New York Times
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Towns along the coast have been vying for potential contracts with the
mine for maintenance work, construction and other services. “People are
really rooting for this because of the economy,” said Stephen Smyth, a
local union leader, who started working in underground mines at 17.
The Carmichael mine, he added, is “offering that
thing of hope, hope for a better life, secure employment and better
wages so people can live a reasonable life.”
Adani
has said the project will create as many as 10,000 jobs in the region.
But a consultant hired by Adani said the employment claim was overstated
in court testimony given in a case where a conservation group was
looking to block the mine. Critics have also noted that other mines in
Australia may need to scale back production if Carmichael opens, meaning
job losses elsewhere.
A host of Australian
celebrities — including the rock band Midnight Oil — and international
groups have urged Mr. Turnbull to kill the project, arguing that such a
large mine would violate Australia’s commitment in the Paris climate
accord to work to prevent temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees
Celsius above preindustrial levels.
In April, Mr. Turnbull met with Mr. Adani and later told reporters that the mine “will
create tens of thousands of jobs,” adding, “Plainly, there is a huge economic benefit from a big project of this kind, assuming it’s built and it proceeds.”
If
Adani and other mines in the Galilee Basin go ahead and reach maximum
production, coal from the region would release as much as 700 million
tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year, or nearly as much
as Germany generates in emissions, according to
a study by Greenpeace.
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Coal awaiting export at the Abbot Point port. David Maurice Smith for The New York Times
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Australia has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas
emissions to 26 percent to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, but the
coal it sells to India and other countries would not be counted in its
total.
It is unclear if India even needs the extra
coal. After years of big increases in coal consumption, the growth rate
slowed last year as the nation has improved energy efficiency and
shifted to solar, wind and hydropower. India’s coal-fired power plants
are running
below 60 percent of capacity, a record low, experts say.
That has raised questions about the economics of the
Carmichael mine. Australia’s four largest banks have publicly ruled out
financing it, and analysts have argued that the mine would face stiff
competition from local sources of coal in India and elsewhere.
Globally, coal consumption actually decreased by 1.7 percent in 2016, according to a
BP report
on energy trends, leading the company to declare that “the fortunes of
coal appear to have taken a decisive break from the past.”
Critics
worry Adani could default on the government’s loan or flood the market,
lowering prices worldwide and allowing coal to make a comeback as an
energy source.
The Adani Group’s business record
has also drawn scrutiny. The conglomerate, whose interests span natural
resources, logistics, energy and agriculture, has faced allegations in
India of environmental degradation, money laundering and bribery, but it
has denied any illegal activity.
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Mike
Brunker, a member of the Whitsunday Regional Council, supports the coal
mine, viewing it as a potential creator of much needed jobs in the area. David Maurice Smith for The New York Times
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Adani leased about 460 square miles of land in the
Galilee Basin nearly a decade ago. It can take two to three days to get
to the site from the coast, with the last leg of the trip on unpaved
roads. Surveying, soil testing and design work has begun, including on
an airstrip, mining camp, access roads and the rail link, said Ron
Watson, a spokesman for Adani Australia.
Coal from
the mine would be transported by rail about 240 miles through grazing
land to Abbot Point, the nation’s most northern deep water coal port,
which is already used to ship coal to China, Japan and South Korea.
Adani has signed a 99-year lease of the port and plans an expansion that
would allow it to double the amount of coal going through.
From
the air, the piles of coal and equipment at Abbot Point are a striking
contrast with the turquoise waters of the Coral Sea. The closest coral
of the Great Barrier Reef is just 12 miles away.
A 30-minute drive southeast from Abbot Point is the
seaside town of Bowen, where parts of the Nicole Kidman epic “Australia”
was filmed a decade ago during better times. Now, the streets are
dotted with “For Sale” signs beyond the main drag.
“We
had miners living in the high parts of town,” or the most expensive
neighborhoods, said Mike Brunker, who represents Bowen in the Whitsunday
regional council and is a supporter of the mine for the jobs it is
projected to bring. “That was the boom time. They had to leave, they had
to go to other mines, or they’ve just gone broke.”
Further
up the coast is Townsville, home to Adani’s headquarters in Australia,
where protesters sometimes congregate and residents exemplify the
conflicts felt by many in the region.
“You don’t know what’s good for us,” one man snapped at an environmental activist conducting a survey recently.
Not too long after, another resident told the activist, “I oppose the mine even though I applied for a job.”
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