Environment minister Tanya Plibersek to reassess 18 major coal and gas proposals, including Mount Pleasant, for their climate change impacts

Mount Pleasant open-cut coal mine near Muswellbrook is one of 18 major coal and gas proposals that federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek will reassess for its climate change impacts. It follows a legal bid that could lead the minister to reject fossil-fuel burning projects due to climate change. Environmental Justice Australia asked Ms Plibersek to reconsider the 18 plans to account for their "contribution to serious climate harms". The legal group was representing the Environment Council of Central Queensland. "Until now, former environment ministers failed to take climate change into account when considering which animals, plants and places could be harmed by a coal or gas proposal," the group's president Christine Carlisle said. "Assessing the risks and harm of new coal or gas should account for all the evidence, including how it would contribute to climate breakdown." The Mount Pleasant Optimisation Project received conditional approval from the NSW Independent Planning Commission in September. It had not been granted federal approval. Ms Carlisle said people can help ensure "environmental law accounts for the reality of climate change". "Each of the proposals across NSW, Queensland and Western Australia are open for public comment until November 24," she said. She said climate change threatens world heritage sites such as Kakadu National Park and the Great Barrier Reef, the Australian Alps, Grampians and more than 360 threatened animals, including koalas and turtles, and 1000 threatened plants. "The climate impact of each of the proposed mines and gas fields will devastate Australia's living wonders. Every single one will have immense and irreversible impacts on the animals, plants and places that we want our children and their children to know and love," Ms Carlisle said. "So we can tell Minister Plibersek why we must protect our living wonders from catastrophic climate impacts. Because this is about all of us." Environmental Justice Australia principal lawyer Hollie Kerwin said "our client has employed a rarely used provision of the EPBC Act to make sure the application of environmental law in Australia accounts for the reality of climate change". "Our client's legal intervention is deliberately challenging proposals across our country. There are proposals to dig up more coal, bids to stay open for decades longer, and to drill major new gas wells. The science is clear. More coal and gas would just be adding fuel to the fire we need to put out," she said. Projects to be reassessed: NSW MACH Energy Australia, Mount Pleasant Optimisation Project Boggabri Coal Mine Spur Hill Management, Spur Hill Underground Coking Coal Whitehaven Narrabri Underground Mine extension Queensland Australia Pacific LNG, Gas Supply Security Project, Surat and Bowen basins Bowen Basin Coal, Lake Vermont Meadowbrook Coal Mine BM Alliance Coal, Saraji East Mining Lease Project Caval Ridge Mine Horse Pit extension, Bowen Basin Cuesta Coal, Moorlands open cut mine Idemitsu Ensham Life of Mine extension Macmines Austasia, China Stone Coal Mine Project Mount Ramsay Coal Company, Baralaba South Coal Project and Transport Corridor, Bowen Basin Stanmore Coal The Range Project TEC Coal, Meandu Mine King 2 East Project Valeria Coal, Valeria Project Waratah Coal, Alpha North Coal Mine, Galilee Basin Whitehaven, Winchester South Project Mine Western Australia Woodside Energy North West Shelf Project extension, Carnarvon Basin IN THE NEWS: WHAT DO YOU THINK? We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on the Newcastle Herald website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. Sign up for a subscription here.