Australia's High Court has invalidated the approval for MACH Energy's Mount Pleasant coal mine expansion in Muswellbrook, New South Wales. In a 3-2 ruling on Wednesday, the court found that the Independent Planning Commission of NSW did not adequately consider imposing conditions to minimise 'scope 3' greenhouse gas emissions, which are generated when coal is burned after being sold and exported overseas.
The decision concludes a four-year legal challenge by retired schoolteachers Wendy Wales and Tony Lonergan, alongside the Denman Aberdeen Muswellbrook Scone Healthy Environment Group (Dams Heg). The couple, who live on a farm adjacent to the mine, had questioned whether the state government was responsible for emissions from exported coal.
This case, an appeal by MACH Energy against an earlier NSW court of appeal decision, was the first time Australia's highest court had been asked to consider climate change. The High Court's judgment confirmed the approval was invalid, though on a different basis than the court of appeal, ruling that the planning commission did not consider whether scope 3 emissions could be mitigated.
The proposed project would have doubled the mine's coal output to 21 million tonnes a year until 2048, with 98% of the projected emissions classified as scope 3 emissions. Elaine Johnson, director of Johnson Legal, which represented Dams Heg, stated that the decision confirms Australian governments need to take responsibility for emissions from coal exports.