Adani gets green signal for $7bn Oz mine

According to conditions laid down by the Australian Environment Department, Adani Mining will have to ensure protection for 31,000 hectares of southern black-throated finch habitat, and respond to all advice from the Independent Expert Scientific Committee on Coal Seam Gas and Large Coal Mining Development.

Adani, which wants to ship 40 million tonnes of coal a year in the mine’s first phase, has battled opposition from green groups since starting work on the project five years ago. Final approval is pending Adani’s submission of a groundwater strategy to the federal environment department.

The federal court had revoked the original acceptance because of a bureaucratic bungle over two vulnerable species – the snake that was ornamental as well as the yakka skink.

Over two months after an Australian court revoked the environmental acceptance for the undertaking, the documents were signed by Environment Minister Greg Hunt, giving Adani the re-approval with conditions imposed also would make sure that the highest environmental standards are met by the company and that take into consideration community dilemmas.

But environmental activists are not convinced.

Critics say the decision was “grossly irresponsible”.

“Adani has repeatedly exaggerated the economic impacts of the mine and admitted in court that total jobs from the project, including short-term constructions jobs, will be less than 1,500, a fifth of the 10,000 jobs originally promised”, said Ellen Roberts of Mackay Conservation Group.

“Simply put, these impacts are very serious, and can’t be offset”.

“The previous decision to approve the project was set aside at the request of the Australian government in August 2015 as a precautionary measure”.

Abbott was a fervent supporter of coal (as well as logging pristine forests and culling sharks), once describing it as “good for humanity”.

The project needs both State and Federal approval, and while it’s now regained its green tick from the Commonwealth, the Queensland government is yet to give it the go-ahead.

This might sound ironic to the renewable energy industry – for which investment certainty has been at a premium for a few time now, due largely to the antics of Hunt’s own party – but it might also confuse industry watchers who have warned that the Adani-led mega-coal mine and port project is loaded with “unprecedented” levels of financial complexity and risk, including the climate risk attached to digging up coal in a warming world with an increasingly tight carbon budget.

“Australia can have the Reef or it can have the Carmichael coal mine”.

The Carmichael mine would be among the largest coal mines in the world.

“The Carmichael Mine and NGBR lie at the heart of Adani’s plans to build a long-term future with Queensland”, the statement said.