‘Know the facts on Carmichael Project’s emissions’: ADANI MINING

“We recognise that people have differing opinions on mining thermal coal and the Carmichael Project, however it is important that they have the facts before joining a protest,” a statement from Adani Mining read.

The statement further reads, “The process of mining 10 million tonnes of coal per annum at the Carmichael mine will produce 240,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. To put this in perspective Queensland overall produces more than 95.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year.”

“The Carmichael Mine’s emissions will be less than 0.04% of Australia’s emissions, and less than 0.0006% of global emissions.

“When our coal is burnt overseas to generate electricity the amount of carbon dioxide that will be produced will represent less than 0.04% of global emissions.

“What’s more is if Adani does not provide Queensland’s Carmichael coal to India, other countries’ coal suppliers are ready to fill the gap with coal of a lesser quality in comparison to ours.

“For example, the coal could come from Indonesia where the coal has over 28% higher greenhouse gas emissions.

“That means that denying other countries access to superior quality thermal coal like ours will not only disadvantage them environmentally, it will also mean that instead of jobs being created here in Queensland to mine our coal that those jobs will be exported to other countries at the expense of Queenslanders.”

“It’s time to have a debate on facts not fearmongering,” stated the Adani Mining statement.

‘Federal Minister for the Environment’s approves  groundwater management plans for the Carmichael Coal Mine and Rail Infrastructure project’: Mr Lucas Dow

“We welcome the Federal Minister for the Environment’s approval of the groundwater management plans for the Carmichael Coal Mine and Rail Infrastructure project,” the CEO of Adani Mining, Mr Lucas Dow.

Mr Lucas Dow added, “This approval follows more than 18 months of consultation with the Department, and an independent review by CSIRO and Geoscience Australia.

“The Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems Management Plan and the Groundwater Management and Monitoring Plan detail all the activities we will undertake and safeguards we will implement to ensure that we meet the approval conditions for the mine relating to groundwater. This includes a network of more than 100 monitoring bores to track underground water levels.

“The plans will ensure we achieve sustainable environmental outcomes and we’re now looking forward to delivering the thousands of jobs our project will create for people in north and central Queensland.

“Both CSIRO and Geoscience Australia have confirmed the revised plans meet strict scientific requirements”

“Throughout the past 18 months, the Federal Department provided us with certainty of process and timing, including the steps involved in the independent review by CSIRO and Geoscience Australia experts.

“In contrast, the Queensland Government has continued to shift the goal posts when it comes to finalising the outstanding environmental management plans for the mine and is standing in the way of thousands of jobs for Queenslanders.

“Queensland’s Minister for the Environment Leanne Enoch has stated she will not interfere in the “independent regulator’s” decision on our outstanding environmental management plans, while hinting that the approvals will take time and refusing to accept that independent scientific assessments already completed are adequate.

“If this process is to be free of political interference and intervention, the question must be asked, why is the Minister providing media statements and a running commentary on a process that she claims she has no involvement with?

“We expect the State’s final assessments should take a fraction of the six weeks that it took the Commonwealth Government to finalise the groundwater approvals, as Adani has already amended its groundwater management plans to meet the recommendations from independent scientific bodies CSIRO and Geoscience Australia, which have both endorsed the final version of our plans.

“The State Government has all the information it needs to finalise these plans including the rigorous scientific assessment by independent scientific bodies CSIRO and Geoscience Australia.

“The State Government’s process for approval of the outstanding Black-throated Finch Management Plan and Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems Management Plan should be efficient and timely, just as they are for other Queensland projects. 2

“These approvals are all that is needed to allow Adani to begin construction of the Carmichael Mine.

“It’s time the Queensland Government gave us a fair go and stopped shifting the goal posts so we can get on with delivering these jobs.”