the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned of the urgent need to stop the extraction and burning of coal to contain global warming,” Ava Princi, one of the eight teenagers who brought the case in July, said. “In approving the mine, Minister Ley has turned her back on the federal court, the international scientific consensus on climate change, and the children and young people of Australia.”
The Environment Minister’s decision on Thursday was published just six weeks ahead of the United Nations Cop26 climate conference, for which world leaders, climate experts and campaigners are set to meet in Glasgow to agree coordinated action to tackle the climate crisis. The approval of the extension of the Vickery mine was the second coalmining project to receive the green light from the Federal Environment Minister in the past two weeks, with the first being Wollongong Coal’s plan to expand existing underground coalmining at its Russell Vale colliery.
Although Whitehaven Coal’s project is referred to as a mine extension, there is no mine at the location that is mentioned in the application. Instead, the authorisation was given for an extension on an earlier Whitehaven project that was approved but not built. Under the Vickery project, Whitehaven Coal is set to construct an open-cut coalmine near Gunnedah, in north-eastern New South Wales, where 168million tonnes of coal will be extracted over 25 years.
