The science is clear: to ensure a safe planet for future generations, to save our wildlife from extinction and to reduce the rising cost of food and energy, we need to urgently tackle the climate emergency. To do that we need to rapidly phase out coal and gas and transition to clean, reliable renewable energy.
Instead, climate action is going backwards under Labor. NSW is staring down the biggest expansion of coal this state has seen since the Paris Agreement.
There’s at least 19 coal projects waiting for approval by the NSW Labor Government. If they are allowed to go ahead, together they would emit 15 times more carbon emissions than NSW’s entire current annual carbon output.
Glencore and Yancoal’s proposed expansions of the Hunter Valley Operations coal project alone would pump out a combined 1.2 billion tonnes of additional CO2 emissions over its lifetime* - eight times the volume of NSW’s current annual emissions.
Also at risk of being bulldozed is hundreds of hectares of endangered woodland that provides crucial habitat for some of our most precious wildlife. Threatened species like endangered koalas and critically endangered regent honeyeaters will be pushed closer toward extinction, all for the sake of more massive open cut coal mines that will fuel the climate crisis.
*Source: https://australiainstitute.org.au/initiative/coal-mine-tracker/