In National First, Australia Uses Environmental Law to Reject New Coal Mine to Protect Great Barrier Reef

The Australian government on Wednesday rejected a proposed open pit coal mine that would have been located less than 6.2 miles from the Great Barrier Reef. 

The decision marks the first time Australia has rejected a coal mine based on environmental laws. 

“I’ve decided that the adverse environmental impacts are simply too great,” Australian Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek said in a video announcing her decision. “The mine is an open cut mine less than 10 kilometers from the Great Barrier Reef, and the risk of pollution and irreversible damage to the reef is very real.”

The Central Queensland Coal Project was proposed by Australian mining mogul Clive Palmer, who also founded and funds the conservative United Australia Party, as AP News reported. It would have had a capacity of 11 million U.S. tons of coal each year for 25 years. The mine would have produced both thermal and coking coal, according to BBC News.

In her announcement, Plibersek said the mine would have polluted freshwater and potentially harmed the seagrass meadows that provide food for dugongs and breeding grounds for fish. 

Plibersek’s decision was not unexpected. It comes months after she announced her proposed decision was not to approve the mine. However, the law required she then take comments from both the mine’s proposers and members of the public. During the public comment period, more than 9,000 people responded within 10 days, with most of them supporting her decision to block the project, according to BBC News.

The coal mine would also have contributed to the greatest threat faced by the world’s coral reefs–the climate crisis. The Great Barrier Reef is especially vulnerable. In 2022, it suffered its sixth mass bleaching event since 1998.

The current Australian Labor government came to power last year with promises to up the nation’s climate ambitions with a goal of cutting emissions by 43 percent by 2030. However, the country remains one of the world’s leading exporters of both coal and natural gas, according to AP News. Its policies are rated “insufficient” by Climate Action Tracker, and it has so far resisted calls from the Green Party to reject all new fossil fuel projects, CNN reported.

Plibersek told Parliament Thursday that her decision to block the proposed coal mine did not signal a shift in policy, according to AP News.

“I will make each decision that comes before me on a case-by-case basis according to the law and according to the science that is available,” she said.