“After careful examination the [Environment] Department has decided that each request is valid.”

Environmental Justice Australia represented the ECCQ and provided the government with more than 3000 documents, including fire maps and reports that outlined the impact of climate change on ecosystems.

EJA principal lawyer Hollie Kerwin said the decision had been made using a rarely used provision to ensure the federal EPBC Act accounted for fossil fuel’s contribution to climate change.

Minerals Council of Australia chief executive officer Tania Constable said companies that make applications under the EPBC Act were subject to an “appropriate and thorough process and we are confident that this will be verified”.

The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association was also contacted for comment.

The coal and gas projects to face greater environmental scrutiny are worth billions of dollars, including Whitehaven’s Narrabri underground coal mine extension in NSW, BHP’s Saraji metallurgical coal mine in Queensland, Glencore’s proposed Valeria coal mine and Clive Palmer’s Waratah Coal Alpha North mine in the Galilee Basin.

Also captured are two projects that would boost gas supply – a proposal to extend the life to 2070 of Woodside’s giant North West Shelf, the nation’s oldest liquefied natural gas facility and one of the biggest industrial greenhouse gas emitters, as well as the Australia Pacific LNG joint venture’s proposal for additional gas wells in Queensland.

Public submissions will be considered by the government next year.

In May last year, the Federal Court found in favour of eight teenagers who brought a class action against Whitehaven Coal’s proposed extension the Vickery coal mine near Boggabri.

Former Environment Minister Sussan Ley successfully challenged the decision. She argued the minister did not have a duty of care to protect Australian children from climate harm caused by the potential expansion of a coal mine.

The court ruled in her favour, finding that the control of emissions and the protection of the public from personal injury caused by climate change were not roles that Parliament entrusted to the minister under current laws.

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Creating further strain on household and business energy users, Queensland’s state-owned electricity generator CS Energy said on Friday that all four units at the Callide coal plant were out of action.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said there would be enough supply to prevent blackouts over the weekend, but Mining and Energy Union Queensland vice president Shane Brunker said the outages created a risk of blackouts if wet weather disrupts other electricity generation or if hot weather increases power demand.