Export coal emissions: consider the social impacts, don't just account for them

Twelve years ago, in New South Wales, a landmark court case over a new coalmine called Anvil Hill found that downstream emissions – or “scope 3” – are relevant to the assessment of a mine’s environmental impact.

The chief justice made it clear that the primary reason
for refusal of the proposed coalmine was its
unacceptable social impacts.’

So, when a state planning policy for mining was created six months later, these emissions were explicitly included in the matters to be considered when weighing up new coalmines.

This court case and that planning policy were instrumental in the inclusion of climate change and downstream emissions among the reasons given by the chief justice of the land and environment court, Brian Preston, in February when he upheld the NSW government’s refusal of the Rocky Hill coalmine next to Gloucester, north of the Hunter Valley.

Read the opinion piece from The Guardian - “Export coal emissions: consider the social impacts, don't just account for them.”