The Federal Labor Government has issued a notice today confirming that the Boggabri Coal Mine Modification 8 will not be assessed for the impact it will have on climate change as part of its assessment under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. The notice comes 5 days after the NSW Labor Government received the first Annual Report from the State’s Net Zero Commission that stated new coal mines “pose a major challenge” to reducing emissions in line with the law.
Greens MP, environmental lawyer and spokesperson for the Environment, Planning and Climate Change, Sue Higginson, said “Labor is lost when it comes to acting on climate change and protecting the environment. We have already hit 1.5 degrees of global heating, we are not on track to meet our emissions reduction targets here in NSW and now federal Labor refuses to consider the impacts of climate change from the continuation of mining coal on the environment,”
“Climate change is the single biggest threat that we face, and is a primary driver of the biodiversity and extinction crises, and yet Labor still refuse to consider the impacts on the climate from waving through massive new coal expansions,”
“The decision by Labor to disregard the impacts of the Boggabri Coal mine on climate change has cleared the path for the project to be approved before the new year, a truly terrible outcome for our emissions reduction targets in NSW,”
“If the mine is approved for expanded operations, an additional 62 million tonnes of coal will be dug up and burnt in Australia and overseas. Labor cannot expect to be trusted when they say they want to act on climate while pushing ahead massive mines like Boggabri to be expanded,”
“It’s not too late for the NSW Labor Government to take action and to halt this project from going any further. NSW has the power to intervene and stop projects from going ahead where there is a clear need to do so. If tens of millions of tonnes of additional greenhouse gas emissions generated from expanded mines isn’t a good reason, while we face another summer of record breaking heat waves, then Labor shouldn’t be taken seriously when they say they want to act on climate change,” Ms Higginson said.