Snakes and skinks stop the Adani mine, but not climate change

T

Professor Samantha 
Heburn ponders the
Adani mine decision.
 

he Federal Court has overturned the federal environmental approval of Adani’s A$16.5 billion coal mine project in central Queensland.

The court ordered the approval of the Carmichael mine licence in the Galilee Basin to be set aside, meaning that Adani will have to re-apply for the coal licence and the federal environment minister Greg Hunt will have to re-approve the application.

Sue Higginson, principal solicitor of the Environment Defenders Office NSW, said that the decision of the Federal Court was “based on a failure by the minister to have regard to the conservation advices for two federally listed vulnerable species” – the yakka skink and the ornamental snake. The lawsuit also alleged a failure “to consider global greenhouse emissions from the burning of the coal”.

Read Samantha Herpburn’s story on The Conversation - “Adani court case leaves the climate change question unanswered”.