Coal news and updates

Whitehaven Coal’s Vickery mine given green light by environment minister

The federal environment minister, Sussan Ley, has approved Whitehaven Coal’s Vickery mine extension in northern New South Wales in a decision environmental advocates have described as a betrayal of Australian children.

Ley’s decision to approve the mine comes six weeks before world leaders are due to meet for the United Nations Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow where Australia is under pressure to announce tougher national emissions reduction targets.

The approval, published Thursday, is the second coalmining project Ley has green-lit in the past two weeks and follows a federal court ruling that she has a duty of care to protect young people from the climate crisis.

The eight students who brought the case, which unsuccessfully sought an injunction against the Vickery extension but found the minister had a duty to not act in a way that would cause future harm to young people, said they were dismayed by Ley’s decision.