Qld coalmine expansion approved by Albanese government will clear habitat and fuel climate crisis, scientists say | Coal
The Albanian government has approved a Queensland coal mine expansion that will clear habitat for threatened koalas and greater gliders and add more fuel to the climate crisis, environmentalists say.
The expansion of the Middlemount mine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin (jointly owned by US company Peabody and Chinese-owned Yancoal) will enable the export of around 85 million tonnes of coal over 24 years.
Environmentalists estimate that burning coal abroad to produce steel or electricity would release about 236 million tonnes of CO2 over the life of the project; This is equivalent to almost half of Australia’s current annual footprint.
Clearance of approximately 81 hectares (200 acres) of greater glider habitat and 183 hectares of koala habitat has been approved. Company documents show that 1,557 hectares were identified as an area that needed to be secured to “stabilize” the clearing.
Among a list conditions imposed by the government Designed to limit damage to threatened species, Middlemount was asked to identify tree cavities used by gliders and then relocate them.
But ecologists said greater gliders – Australia’s largest gliding marsupials – would probably die from the clearing and rejected the plan to relocate their homes.
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Deakin University ecologist Prof Euan Ritchie said: “Destroying greater glider habitat equivalent to 40 MCG and then trying to relocate it All Cavities and the claim that this somehow compensates for the damage done to larger gliders is truly misleading and insulting.”
If it were even possible to safely remove tree cavities, relocating them would likely change their thermal properties and microclimate, “which means gliders may no longer find them suitable and the cavities may be located in a tree or in a part of the tree they do not prefer,” he said.
“Make no mistake, many large gliders will die as a result of this action and the ridiculous balancing measure.
“We cannot continue to destroy the homes of threatened native wildlife and say we are saving them using even more absurd and pointless mitigation approaches.”
Prof David Lindenmayer, a forest ecologist at the Australian National University, echoed Ritchie’s concerns and said the mining approval “doomed these animals to death”.
Habitat clearing and global warming are among the key threats facing the species, which was designated as endangered in 2022, just six years after it was first listed on the national threatened species list.
Middlemount is the second coal mine expansion approved by the federal government this year, after the Meandu mine in Queensland, which fuels the Tarong power stations, was given the green light last month.
Environmental group Lock the Gate’s Queensland headquarters co-ordinator, Dr. Claire Gronow said: “The Albanian government is burning our future and burning its own credibility with every new or expanded coal mine they approve. Now is the time to implement an orderly transition away from coal rather than approving major expansions.”
Charlie Cox, a Queensland Conservation Council campaigner, said: “The science is unwavering – mining and burning coal is fundamentally changing our climate, causing more frequent rain events and flooding.
“Allowing Yancoal to extract and export another 236 million tonnes of climate pollution shows Queenslanders that the Albanian government does not care about our safety, health or cost of living.”
The Guardian has approached Watt’s office, Yancoal and Peabody, for comment.
