The High Court of Australia has ruled in favour of a Hunter Valley community group in the nation’s first ever climate change case to reach Australia’s highest court.
In a landmark judgment, the High Court upheld the unanimous NSW Court of Appeal ruling that the Independent Planning Commission had failed a mandatory legal obligation when it approved the expansion of MACH Energy’s Mount Pleasant coal mine without considering how pollution from coal the mine exports would affect the region through increased bushfire risk, drought, flooding, and extreme heat.
The ruling sets a binding national precedent across the NSW planning system, requiring decision-makers to properly consider the local consequences of climate change associated with a project’s emissions. It directly affects 17 coal proposals currently in the NSW planning pipeline, and establishes a legal template that is expected to be applied in other states and in future climate litigation across Australia.
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The judgment means the approval of the Mt Pleasant coal mine expansion remains invalid and will need to be referred back to the NSW Land and Environment Court or Independent Planning Commission to properly assess the project’s contribution to local impacts of climate change.
The case was brought by the Denman Aberdeen Muswellbrook Scone Healthy Environment Group Inc (DAMS HEG), a grassroots community organisation from the Upper Hunter Valley, represented in the Court of Appeal and High Court by environmental law firm Johnson Legal.
The community group has fought the case through three levels of court over four years.
DAMS HEG president Wendy Wales, a retired science teacher, lives on a farm in the Upper Hunter Valley adjacent to the Mount Pleasant mine.
She said, “Today the High Court has said what we have always known: we cannot dig up coal, ship it overseas, watch it drive climate change, and then pretend the consequences have nothing to do with us and won’t be felt by us.
“The droughts, the bushfires, the floods are directly connected to greenhouse gases, and massive fossil fuel projects like Mt Pleasant Optimisation simply add fuel to the fire. We can’t ignore physics, chemistry, and biology. We must live within nature’s limits, and this ruling endorses that.
“Lawmakers now need to turn their full attention to finding unity of purpose in explaining and addressing climate change. It is not in our interests that our coal is burned anywhere.
“The NSW government should be looking long term for the people of NSW as we face the consequences of climate change.
“This ruling acknowledges that many Australian communities have already suffered extreme weather devastation. Now the true and complete long term costs of export coal on Australians, via the climate impact from burning that coal, must be considered.”
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Wales’ partner, Hunter Valley local Tony Lonergan, said, “Wendy and I have seven grandkids between us. We did this for them, and for all the kids across the Hunter who are going to grow up in a world shaped by the decisions being made right now. Today, the highest court in the country agreed that those decisions have to account for the damage they cause. That matters more than I can say.
“This isn’t the end of coal overnight. But it is the end of coal mine approvals that look the other way on climate. Every planning authority in Australia now has to take this seriously. That is a fundamental change.”
