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A Hunter Valley coal mine’s proposal to dramatically increase its output has been condemned by critics who say it puts the NSW government’s environmental record on the line in the run-up to the state election.
The mine’s owners, Glencore and Yancoal, released an environmental impact statement (EIS) on Monday which outlines the proposed expansion and extension of the life of its Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) open-cut mine, which in 2020 produced 17 million tonnes of thermal coal.
The NSW government is considering nine coal mine projects, with environmentalists concerned they fly in the face of emission reduction targets. Credit:Glenn Hunt
If approved, the expanded mine would produce an additional 400 million tonnes of coal by 2050. The vast majority of this coal would be exported and burnt in overseas power plants and generate an additional 1.1 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases over the next 27 years, eight times the volume of NSW’s annual emissions.
Lock the Gate Alliance NSW co-ordinator Nic Clyde said the fact the NSW government was considering the project showed the country’s approach to emission reduction was ineffective.
“Unfortunately, the NSW government has a track record of backing new and expanded coal mining, and has failed to adopt policies to prevent coal mines from blowing NSW’s 2030 and 2050 emission targets,” he said.
“This year, the NSW government looks set to consider the most new and expanded coal mining capacity in the state since the Paris Agreement. This is an absurd position for a government that claims to have good climate credentials.”
The NSW government has announced a new target of reducing emissions by 70 per cent by 2035. The previous goal was a 50 per cent reduction by 2030.
Meanwhile, the federal government said it was open to approving new fossil fuel projects, even though it has set a legally binding climate target to cut emissions by 43 per cent by 2030, but the development’s economic and environmental credentials must stack up.
According to the United Nations’ chief climate body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to have a 50 per cent chance of remaining beneath 1.5 degrees just 2890 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide can be emitted. Of that amount, 2390 billion had already been emitted by 2019, leaving a pre-pandemic carbon budget of 500 billion tonnes.