A class action against a coal mine extension could make it more difficult for coal mines to be approved in Australia on the basis of intergenerational equity and climate change, if the claimants prove successful.
The landmark claim, by a group of eight teenagers from across Australia, begins today in Melbourne’s Federal Court and is expected to last for five days, but a judgement might not be made for several months.
The students say Australian Minister for the Environment Susan Ley has a duty of care to protect them from climate change and that the expansion of Whitehaven Coal’s Vickery coal mine in New South Wales state would contribute to climate change and endanger their future.
“In the community, there is an expectation that big coal mines like this do get approved at federal level and that is precisely the reason we are concerned,” said David Barnden, principal at Equity Generation Lawyers. “This is about emissions and the contribution to climate change, and harm to people who are children today.”
Ley’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but she told local media that she was unable to comment while a court case was under way.
The Vickery open-cut coal mine would produce mostly metallurgical coal for steelmaking, as well as some higher grade thermal coal, and is waiting on final approval from the minister.
It would create an estimated 450 ongoing jobs during operations, with a net A$1.2 billion (US$929.7 million) state economic benefit, Whitehaven said.
“Our position in relation to the litigation ... is that the legal claim has no merit and should be dismissed,” Whitehaven managing director and chief executive Paul Flynn said in a statement.
“As the Australian economy starts to recover from the effects of COVID-19, it is vital that major employment-generating investments in the economy are not delayed by legal claims that have no substance,” Flynn said.
Coal is Australia’s second-most valuable resource export, worth an estimated A$37 billion in the financial year to June, government figures showed.
Climate change has been a divisive topic in Australia, one of the world’s largest per capita carbon emitters. The country’s conservative government has won successive elections on a platform of supporting Australia’s dominant fossil-fuel sectors.
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