Australia has blocked the arrival of a coal mine for the first time. The country relies on environmental laws for this. The coal mine would be barely ten kilometres from the Great Barrier Reef, the largest coral reef in the world.
Australian Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said the project poses too great a risk to the coral reef, which is already very fragile.
The man behind the project, controversial Australian billionaire Clive Palmer, has not yet commented on the decision. His company, Central Queensland Coal, had proposed building an open pit coal mine 700 kilometres northwest of Brisbane. The intention was that the mine would be operational for twenty years.
Plibersek had already indicated last year that the government would block the construction of the mine. However, the public was allowed to give their opinion on the project, and the minister’s department received more than 9,000 responses in ten days, all of which called for the project to be stopped.
The Queensland state government had also advised its federal colleagues to stop the coal mine because the environmental risks were “significant”.
Minister Plibersek now agrees. Her department says sediment from the coal mine would likely affect the reef and local water resources.
It is the first time a minister in Australia has blocked the construction of a coal mine by invoking the Protection and Conservation of Biodiversity Act. It is a big step for Australia, one of the world’s most polluting countries, due to coal and natural gas production. Coal is Australia’s second-largest export after iron ore.
The state of the Great Barrier Reef is very worrying. The coral reef has been struggling for decades with bleaching of the reef due to the warming of the seawater.
