By Peter Briggs, Partner, and Tom Dougherty, Senior Associate, Sydney.
Proponents seeking consent for new projects, or modifications of existing projects, with ‘material’ greenhouse gas emissions across all industries in NSW should carefully assess climate change impacts, particularly if the proposal is not ‘carbon neutral’.
On 8 February 2019, the NSW Land and Environment Court refused development consent for a new open cut mine near Gloucester, NSW.
The Rocky Hill Coal Project (Project) was expected to produce 21 million tonnes of coal over a period of 19 years (including rehabilitation) and support up to 110 jobs during operation and 60 jobs during construction.
However, Chief Justice Brian Preston in Gloucester Resources Limited v Minister for Planning [2019] NSWLEC 7 rejected the development application for the Project on a number of grounds, including the impacts of the mine on climate change.
The Chief Justice’s acceptance of the Project’s direct and indirect contribution to climate change may have implications for any project in NSW across a range of industries that is a ’material’ source of greenhouse gas emissions.
For further details about this case, and its implications, please see our full article available at https://www.herbertsmithfreehills.com/latest-thinking/climate-change-impacts-used-to-reject-new-nsw-coal-mine
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