A foreign-backed company cannot proceed with its $2 billion coal development due to an environmental theory, judges ruled.
The High Court of Australia rejected Korea Electric Power Corporation’s (KEPCO) appeal against authorities using climate change to reject the proposed Bylong Valley Coal Mine, 209km northwest of Newcastle.
Justices James Edelman and Michelle Gordan agreed with the New South Wales Independent Planning Commission’s (IPC) claim that exporting coal to other countries is comparable to burning fossil fuels, which create carbon emissions that might influence long-term weather patterns.
“The applicant [KEPCO] identifies no question of principle, which it would be in the interests of justice for this court to consider,” they said in the final decision.
“An appeal to this court would not enjoy sufficient prospects of success to warrant the grant of special leave to appeal.”
The dismissal means the proponent is unable to develop two open-cut mining areas plus one underground, which produce up to 6.5 million run-of-mine tonnes of thermal coal annually.
The Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) applauded the latest court decision as a historic “David and goliath battle” between the Bylong Valley Protection Alliance (BVPA) and KEPCO.
“The battle to protect the beautiful Bylong Valley from this coal mine is over,” EDO managing lawyer Rana Koroglu said in a public statement.
“It means the IPC can be assured that an evidence-based decision to reject these kinds of destructive fossil fuel projects in the future is legally supported.”
Since all available legal avenues have been exhausted to challenge the 2019 decision, 650 jobs that were promised at the mine will not be created.
“KEPCO needs to eat some humble pie, pack its bags and leave,” BVPA president Phillip Kennedy said in a public statement.
One of the proponent’s options is to submit a revised project to the IPC, according to activists.
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