Australia's Top Court Blocks Coal Mine Expansion Over Climate Impact

Australia's High Court has struck down the expansion of a major coal mine, ruling that the planning authority failed to ensure planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions were "minimised to the maximum extent practicable."

According to environmental campaigners, this is the first climate case to reach the country's highest court, and Wednesday's ruling creates a "binding nationwide precedent" requiring climate harm to be weighed when fossil fuel projects are assessed.

In the ruling, three of the five High Court judges found that the expansion of the Mount Pleasant mine in New South Wales must be stopped. The judges held that the planning authority was obliged to approve the project only with conditions guaranteeing that all greenhouse gas emissions would be minimised — and in this case it had not done so.

The case was brought by two retired science teachers, Wendy Wales and Tony Lonergan, who fought for years to block the coal mine expansion in Australia's rural coal-mining region.

"Today, the High Court has said what we always knew," Wales said in a statement. "We cannot dig up coal, ship it overseas, watch it cause climate change, and then pretend that the consequences have nothing to do with us and that we won't have to bear them."

The mine's operator, Mach Energy, had proposed extending open-cut mining in the Hunter Valley by more than 20 years, to 2048, and nearly doubling annual output. Mach is owned by Droxford International, a subsidiary of Indonesia's Salim Group.

Mach argued that coal exported and burned overseas could not be clearly linked to environmental impacts in the area near the mine. The company's proposal had initially been approved by the New South Wales Independent Planning Commission.

Environmental campaigners opposed it, arguing that every ounce of greenhouse gas released into the atmosphere makes bushfires, floods and droughts more likely.

"Today, the country's highest court has agreed that those decisions must take into account the harm they cause," Lonergan said. "This is not the end of coal overnight. But it is the end of coal approvals that turn a blind eye to climate."

Australia is one of the world's largest exporters of fossil fuels, ranking among the leading sellers of coal and liquefied natural gas.

Anita O'Hart, a lawyer for the community group represented by Wales and Lonergan, said the "historic" ruling was expected to shape how fossil fuel projects are handled in future.

"The High Court has confirmed that the planning authority cannot ignore the chain of causation from a project's emissions to actual, local climate harm," she said.

"This ruling will be applied by courts and planning authorities across Australia, and will be studied internationally as one of the world's most important domestic climate law decisions."

Mach Energy said it was "disappointed with the outcome" but accepted the court's ruling.

"We will continue to actively pursue all available options to ensure the long-term operation of Mount Pleasant," the company said in a statement.