Queensland Government Approves Permit For Australia's Largest Coal Mine

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Adani has secured an environmental permit from the Queensland government to build Australia’s largest coal mine. The Indian conglomerate was issued an environmental authority for its Carmichael mine, west of Bowen in north Queensland, by the department of environment and heritage on Tuesday.

It is one less hurdle for Adani’s highly contested plans, after its Australian chief complained last week that delays in government approvals were “incentivising” green activists to plot further legal challenges to stymie the company’s progress.

Adani still needs to obtain significant bank funding to realise its $16.5bn mine, rail and port project. It must convince the Queensland government it has obtained “financial closure” before it will be allowed to begin dredging near Great Barrier Reef waters to expand the Abbot Point export facility.

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The mine, which alone would cost about $4.1bn to build, would produce up to 60m tonnes of thermal coal a year for sale in Asian electricity markets, notably to Adani’s own generators in India. The ACF alleges federal environment minister Greg Hunt failed to account for the impact of emissions from Carmichael coal, which some analysts have argued could blow the world’s “carbon budget” to keep temperature rises below the 2C limit recently agreed at the Paris climate conference.

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http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/02/queensland-gives-adani-environmental-permit-for-carmichael-coalmine

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1. Acts of faith