"Cynical And Grotesque" Oz Coal Firms Paid To "Restore" Coal Pits After Destroying Rare Habitats
Habitat destruction caused by a new coalmine development in the New South Wales Hunter region will be offset through rehabilitation of the coal pit more than a decade after endangered ecosystems are cleared. Environment groups have labelled the plan to allow future rehabilitation of the mine site to be claimed as part of Glencore’s offsets for its Mangoola mine expansion near Muswellbrook as “cynical and grotesque”.
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Glencore’s Mangoola expansion was approved in early October by the federal environment minister, Sussan Ley. It is the third coal project the minister has approved in a month. In May, the federal court ruled, in a decision that is currently under appeal, that she had a duty to protect people from the harm caused by the climate crisis in considering mine approvals. Under Glencore’s conditions of approval, replanting and regeneration of the actual mine site years after its operations have finished will count towards offsets the company is required to deliver to compensate for the loss of some of the endangered habitat its project will cause.
The development is one example of what conservationists say is the increased use in NSW of mine rehabilitation – which essentially looks to start an ecosystem from scratch – to compensate for the loss of mature bushland. “New South Wales law allows open-cut mine pits to be used as offsets by the companies who have dug those very pits,” said Georgina Woods, the NSW coordinator of the anti-mining group Lock the Gate.
Woods, who will appear at the inquiry on Friday, said the practice was contributing to a “rapid decline” in biodiversity in NSW. “Allowing coalmines to clear vanishing wildlife habitat and claim imaginary future offset for this loss 20 or more years into the future is not just ineffective: it is cynical and grotesque,” she said. “It’s a disgrace and environment minister Matt Kean will have extinction as his legacy if he doesn’t step in to stop it.” In some instances, such as Glencore and Peabody’s United Wambo project, the state and federal governments have given miners permission to claim rehabilitation as a portion of the offset for clearing habitat that is on the brink of extinction.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/22/cynical-and-grotesque-nsw-coalmine-allowed-to-use-future-pit-rehabilitation-as-offset-for-habitat-destruction
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