Our social identity shapes how we feel about the Adani mine – and it makes the energy wars worse

Australia has the technology to move from fossil fuels to renewable energy, but the social dynamics remain challenging. The Stop Adani protest convoy during the 2019 federal election campaign brought this difficulty to the fore.

A real sticking point for navigating any social change, including the energy transition, is finding a way through entrenched attitudes in which people see themselves as “us” in conflict with “them”. In these situations, people tend to focus on trying to defeat their opponents rather than finding mutually beneficial solutions to the problem.

Debate over Australia’s coal industry is fraught and involves entrenched attitudes.

In research just released, I examined media coverage of the Stop Adani protest convoy to better understand these social identity divides. In particular, I analysed the factors shaping who was an “us” and who was a “them” in the conflict.

I found that the media, with the help of politicians, crafted a narrative of division between inner-city “greenies” and Queensland mining communities. These divisions foster a social dynamic that ultimately inhibits co-operation and good policy outcomes.

Read the story from The Conversation by a lecturer from the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University, Rebecca Colvin  - “Our social identity shapes how we feel about the Adani mine – and it makes the energy wars worse.”

Adani mine gets final environmental approval for Carmichael mine

Adani has passed its final environmental approval and can now begin work on its Carmichael mine in Central Queensland after nearly nine years of planning, fierce protests and endless political debate.

Adani Australia CEO Lucas Dow
previously said they were ready to
 begin work as soon as the approval
was given.

Queensland's Environment Department this afternoon approved the mine's groundwater management plan, with construction at the Galilee Basin to ramp up over the coming weeks.

Over the past 18 months Adani had produced about a dozen versions of its groundwater management plan. Previous attempts failed to meet key environmental requirements, including a plan to avoid destroying one of the world's last unspoiled desert oases, the Doongmabulla Springs Complex.

Read the story from ABC News by Josh Bavas - “Adani mine gets final environmental approval for Carmichael mine.”

(It was climate emergency campaigner, Phillip Sutton, who told "Climate Conversations" that Australia, and the world, has no chance of, meeting its Paris commitments before even a shovel full of coal had been dug out of the Adani mine - Robert McLean)

Adani still needs further federal approval despite pre-election green light

Adani will not be allowed to dig any coal from its Carmichael mine until it gets further federal government approval – despite the Coalition’s pre-election green light for parts of the project.

 Sussan Ley, the new environment minister, will have
responsibility for signing off on key scientific work
before the Adani project can go ahead.

With Adani’s controversial project looming as a central issue in the federal election campaign, the Coalition made political capital in Queensland out of the decision in April by former environment minister Melissa Price to approve Adani’s groundwater management plans.

But key scientific work related to groundwater research still needs to be signed off by Price’s successor, Sussan Ley, before the company can extract any coal.

Read the story from The Guardian by Lisa Cox - “Adani still needs further federal approval despite pre-election green light.”

Adani faces higher hurdle before Carmichael mine approval

Adani faces a final major hurdle in its bid to build one of Australia's most controversial coal mines in an endangered bird's habitat in central Queensland.

Possible impacts on groundwater supplies to areas
 like the ancient Doongmabulla Springs, south-west
of the proposed Carmichael mine, remain a hurdle for Adani. 

On Friday, the Queensland government signed off on the company's black-throated finch management plan but a tougher test is looming. It must satisfy the state's Department of Environment and Science it has the right plan to manage impacts on artesian basin water supplies to important springs on the mine site,

Read the story from The Age by Tony Moore - “Adani faces higher hurdle before Carmichael mine approval".

Explained: Adani’s continuously changing jobs figures

When it comes to the Adani coal mine, Adani has put out so many different job creation numbers, at different times and for different audiences, it’s hard to know what’s what.

The proposed Adani mine has brought many protests.

Adani comes up with different jobs figures depending on who it is talking to.

· Adani told investors the whole project would be automated from mine to port (meaning robot driven trucks to reduce on labour costs i.e. jobs)

· Adani promised politicians 10,000 jobs

· In court Adani was forced to admit it would create just 1,464 new jobs — direct and indirect jobs — for the mine and railway, because it would negatively impact other industries.

Read the story from Medium by The Australia Institute - “Explained: Adani’s continuously changing jobs figures.”

Carmichael coalmine: Adani's own modelling reveals water permit shortfall

Adani does not hold water permits with sufficient capacity to supply the initial construction phase of the Carmichael coal project, based on its own modelling of water consumption.

 Adani says it is ready to begin work on the Carmichael mine
and is being held up by the Queensland government

The company has repeatedly stated it is “ready to start” building the mine and has publicly sought to blame the Queensland government for delays in approving necessary management plans.

But environmental groups say a shortfall in the capacity of the company’s water permits is evidence the company’s readiness claims are “bogus” and designed to heap political pressure on decision-makers.

Publicly available Queensland government information shows Adani holds two short-term water permits, for Mistake Creek and the Belyando River, which expire in April and June this year.

Read the story from The Guardian by Ben Smee - “Carmichael coalmine: Adani's own modelling reveals water permit shortfall.”

Adani facing government probe into latest coal terminal water release into wetlands

The Queensland Government is investigating whether Indian mining firm Adani has breached its environmental licence for the second time in two years with the release of coal-laden floodwaters from its coal port at Abbot Point in the state's north.

Adani's Abbot Point storage dam released water into
the adjacent Caley Valley wetlands earlier this month.

It comes as Adani revealed it did not apply for an emergency permit to dump more polluted water into the sensitive Caley Valley wetlands during the north Queensland floods last week.

The company told the ABC that Abbot Point operators were confident they could manage floodwaters with new infrastructure, but were then overwhelmed by flows from neighbouring properties.

Read the ABC News story by Josh Robertson - “Adani facing government probe into latest coal terminal water release into wetlands.”

Adani says it still needs a loan for rail line if coalmine is to go ahead.

Adani says its Carmichael coalmine remains contingent on a loan to build a rail line to the Galilee Basin – comments that analysts believe will ramp up pressure on the Australian government to further subsidise the project.

Adani needs to build a $2bn, 300km rail line
 if the Carmichael coalmine is to go ahead. 

Karan Adani, the son of company boss Gautam Adani, and the head of the conglomerate’s ports business, told India’s Economic Times the company had “completed financing on the mine” and that it had received all necessary approvals.

He said Adani was “just closing” a loan to pay for a rail line connecting the Galilee Basin to the Abbot Point port. “Once that is done, we will start,” he said.

Read the story by Ben Smee from The Guardian - “Adani says it still needs a loan for rail line if coalmine is to go ahead.”

Adani shuns water trigger despite drought

Indian mining giant Adani is seeking to dodge federal scrutiny of its plan to build a pipeline pumping billions of litres of water from a river in drought-stricken central Queensland to feed its Carmichael mega-mine.

The road to Adani's proposed Carmichael coal mine west of Moranbah.

Labor says the move is nonsensical and casts further doubt over the coal project, which the party is under pressure to halt should it win government.

The $16.5 billion Carmichael project would be Australia’s largest coal mine and would open Queensland’s Galilee Basin to further coal development.

In a plan being evaluated by federal environment authorities, Adani wants to build a 61 kilometre pipeline to pump up to 12.5 billion litres of water a year from the Suttor River to the mine.

The project, known as the North Galilee Water Scheme, could also provide water to “other resource extraction projects” in the region such as the China Stone coal project, Adani says.

Read the story from today’s Age by Nicole Hasham - ”Adani shuns water trigger despite drought.”

The Long Mining Boom - Matt Canavan

“Dubious” was the quality attributed to those attempting to slow and derail Queensland’s Adani coal mine by the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, Matt Canavan, at today’s National Press Club.

Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, Matt Canavan.

Those uncomfortable about today’s address, and Mr Canavan’s overall performance, would equally consider the efforts  and ideologies of the Minister equally dubious.

Today’s address was like a voice from the past and spelt out, not in discrete and specific terms, the reason why the world is facing hitherto unseen difficulties; difficulties that have arisen from our industrial world that is the way it is because of ideas and philosophies championed today by the Minister at the National Press Club.

Watch today's lecture at the press club by Mr Canavan - “The Long Mining Boom”. 

Bill Shorten accused of flip-flopping on Adani coal mine

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has denied telling colleagues he wants to block the Adani mega-mine should Labor win government, instead insisting that blocking it would hurt foreign investment in Australia.

The Adani coal mine proposal has encountered strong public opposition.

Mr Shorten declared the position on Friday amid internal wrangling over the divisive coal mine proposal, and concern from some quarters within the party that Labor is sacrificing its electoral chances in Queensland for city votes.

Read Nicole Hasham’s story in The Age - “Bill Shorten accused of flip-flopping on Adani coal mine.”

Labor pushes for federal investigation into Adani

Labor is pressing the Turnbull government for a federal investigation into Adani, arguing the Commonwealth has responsibility for sensitive wetlands contaminated near the Great Barrier Reef after Cyclone Debbie.

Opposition says commonwealth has responsibility
 for sensitive wetlands contaminated near Great Barrier Reef

Guardian Australia revealed last week concerns that Adani submitted an altered laboratory report while appealing a fine for contamination of the Caley Valley wetlands on the Queensland coast.

The wetlands were blackened by coal-laden water released from the Abbot Point port after Cyclone Debbie’s torrential rains inundated its coal storage facilities in March 2017.

Read Katharine Murphy’s story from The Guardian - “Labor pushes for federal investigation into Adani.”

Why the Adani project should be rejected

Adani was always going to be a significant issue in the forthcoming Queensland state election. It is a divisive issue and one where the major players have sought to play excessive, short-term, politics in recent years.

Protestors against the Adani coal mine rally outside
Adani's headquarters in Brisbane. 

With an urgent global challenge to transition to a low carbon society, Paris Agreement and well beyond, any sensible carbon budget to achieve net zero emissions by mid-century would suggest that 70-plus percent of known coal reserves should never be mined. Nor burned for electricity generation. At just this level, it is impossible to justify a new coal mine, let alone one that aspires to be among the world's largest.

Of course, some simply reject the climate challenge, let alone its severity and urgency, while others suggest it can be "delayed" to "better economic times", as if we could wait to (say) 2049, to make the necessary "adjustments" in one big bang.

Clearly, the latter view completely ignores the significant shifts required in government, business, social and individual behaviour, and the time it would require to restructure the industrial, power and transport base of society away from dependence on fossil fuels.

Read the comment by John Hewson in today’s Melbourne Age - “Why the Adani project should be rejected.”

Mine games. Why Adani is banking on the unbankable

You would think Adani would have gone away by now.

The giant Indian conglomerate can't get a loan for its proposed $22 billion Queensland coal mine from an Australian bank, it can't seem to get one from an Indian bank, the mine would be so big it would depress the world coal price, and the Indian government plans to phase out coal imports altogether.

In documents released to Fairfax Media under freedom of information laws, the Queensland Treasury as good as described the project as "unbankable''.

What is being proposed is breathtaking: a series of coal mines 60 kilometres long. If scrunched together they would be 40 kilometres long and 10 kilometres wide – an area bigger than Paris, much bigger than Sydney Harbour.

Read Peter Martin’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Mine games. Why Adani is banking on the unbankable.”

Adani and the end of subsidy denial

It's not clear whether Adani will win its battle to build its enormous new coal mine. But what is clear is that the coal industry, and the political right, have already lost the war. The enormous subsidies required to make the Adani mine "commercial" have killed once and for all the myth that coal mining is driven by market forces and is a major contributor to government revenue. At the same time Chevron is squealing at the thought of paying income tax, Adani is demanding it gets free coal. That's 10 years' worth of expensive mining PR down the drain right there.

"That's 10 years' worth of expensive mining
 PR down the drain right there" - Richard Denniss.

Read the piece by the chief economist for The Australia Institute, Richard Denniss - “Adani and the end of subsidy denial.”

Adani protest: hundreds rally against proposed $1bn loan to mining company

Protesters at Treasury Place before an expected
meeting in the city between Malcolm Turnbull
and Gautam Adani, the head of the Indian
 mining company Adani.

More than 300 people rallied in Melbourne on Monday to protest against a proposed $1bn federal government loan to Adani for a rail line before an expected meeting in the city between Malcolm Turnbull and the head of the Indian mining company, Gautam Adani.

Adani and Turnbull were expected to meet on the sidelines of the Australian Indian Leadership Dialogue in Melbourne, which they are both scheduled to attend.

The minister for northern Australia, Matt Canavan, confirmed the federal government was considering lending $1bn toward the construction of a 310km rail line from the proposed Galilee Basin coalmine to the port.

Read the story in The Guardian - “Adani protest: hundreds rally against proposed $1bn loan to mining company.”

Adani to build 'one of world's most advanced' solar farms near Queensland mining town

The Mackay Conservation Group says Adani’s
 Rugby Run solar farm will bring it
greater support than the Carmichael mine.

Adani, which is vying to build Australia’s largest coalmine, has announced the site of a $200m solar farm near a central Queensland mining town.

The Indian energy conglomerate plans to build a 100-200 MW solar plant on 600ha that was formerly part of the Rugby Run grazing property near Moranbah.

Adani, India’s largest solar generator, said on Thursday the Rugby Run solar farm would be “one of the world’s most advanced solar energy plants”.

The company’s first solar foray in Australia has prompted rare praise from environmental groups, including one that has taken it on in court over its bitterly contested Carmichael coal project near Bowen.

Peter McCallum, of Mackay Conservation Group, said on Monday the company’s latest move would bring it far more widespread support.

Read The Guardian story - “Adani to build 'one of world's most advanced' solar farms near Queensland mining town.”

Galilee Basin project closer as Queensland Government gives go ahead

Queensland's Minister
for Natural Resources
 and Mines,
 Anthony Lynham.

The Galilee Basin project is now one step closer after the state government announced approval of three Adani mining leases.

Minister for Natural Resources and Mines Anthony Lynham approved the grant of three individual mining leases for the $21.7 billion Carmichael coal, mine and rail project on Sunday.

The approvals come after Adani secured final environmental approval and had reached an agreement on compensation with a landholder last month.

Read Amy Mitchell-Whittington’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Adani's Galilee Basin project mine leases approved.”

Caring for our envionment is simply caring about people

P

ersonal primary concerns are people.

And just like any other species, people can only thrive and prosper if the environment in which they found their niche is preserved and allowed to continue unmolested.

The corporate world, however, sees life on earth through a different prism; a prism through which the human is the pre-eminent species, a species that needs no others and so sees the earth and its resource as its plaything.

Environment groups managed to stop further planning for the proposed massive Adani Carmichael Mine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin by pointing out that the approval processes had not taken account of two vulnerable species, the yakka skink and the ornamental snake.

An ABC story of last week – “Blocking Adani coal mine approval 'dangerous' for Australia,'tragic' for world: Tony Abbott” – tells of the government’s disappointment of the success of what was a legal and justified way of stopping the project, no matter how momentarily.

Just today the Age reports – “Review questions Coalition push to end 'legal sabotage' of resources projects” – sees the move as “legal sabotage” and is acting to stop it through legislative changes.

That process has been discussed on The Conversation - “The government vs the environment: lawfare in Australia.” – in which the term “authoritarianism” is used.

The government is now arguing that only those directly influenced of affected by what is proposed, in this case the Carmichael Mine, should have the right to object and formally oppose the proposal.

A profit-driven want for coal is the reason for the Carmichael Mine; coal is the prime villain in global warming; the climate change it brings affects all of us, irrespective of where we live and so anyone, anywhere in the world, considering the government’s conditions, has a legitimate right to object to what’s proposed in Queensland.

 

Maybe the reasoning is, however, just a little too complex for the thinking of those who lead out country.

-      Robert McLean

 

Diverse views and opinions about Galilee Basin coal mine

D

iverse views and opinions from callers about the proposed massive Adani supported Queensland coal mine surfaced today on a New South Wales call-back radio program.

Many of the protests were legitimate, including that of one fellow who said the mine, which he said would be biggest in the world, could impact on water quality in the Murray Darling Basin impacting on farmers from the northern and southern parts of eastern Australia.

One fellow was optimistic about the mine arguing it was of huge import to Australia both in terms of the jobs it would create and billions of dollars it would bring to Australia in exports.

Interestingly and importantly, no one mentioned the certain greenhouse gases that would evolve from the burning of coal from the Galilee Basin; GHG the world cannot afford as its carbon budget is close to exhausted, so it matters not where the coal is burned or by whom, for if we are serious about slowing global warming the only place for that coal is in the ground.

One caller pointed out that most of the coal would be going to India, the home of the Adani company, but as the world’s climatologists have repeated pointed out, it matters not where the coal is burnt, but whether or not it is burned.

Interestingly, while the debate goes on about Galilee Basin mine, Vietnam is struggling with a difficulty that has arisen because of global warming, involving heavy rainfall and coal mines.

EcoWatch reports: “Ongoing downpours in northeastern Vietnam have resulted in toxic spills and flooding from multiple coal mine and power plant sites in the province surrounding the Ha Long Bay World Heritage Site.”

Read the EcoWatch story - “Toxic Floods From Coal Mines and Power Plants Hit Vietnam’s Ha Long BayWorld Heritage Site”.