Coal Mine Project Threatens Australia's Coral Reef

India's Adani Enterprises is planning to start the construction of a controversial US$16 billion coal project in mid-2017 after receiving all major Australian government approvals for the project, although Adani has battled opposition from environmental groups for six years, as they argue it will contribute to global warming.

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Environmentalists have lobbied banks not to provide loans and a number, including Germany's Deutsche Bank and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, have stated they will not participate in the project.

Adani has already secured the last of the major state and federal government approvals its needs, yet it still has to announce funding for the mine, rail and port project.

Comprising six open-cut pits and five underground collieries, environmentalists fear the mine will produce so much coal for export to India that it will require a mega-port expansion into the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

Adani has argued the mine is needed if Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to keep his promise to bring electricity to hundreds of millions of people living off the grid, but opponents say it is not a done deal.

Australia’s Federal Court dismissed the Australian Conservation Foundation’s case which questioned the government’s decision to approve the deal in August.

“Our question was whether Australia’s federal environmental laws protected our Great Barrier Reef from its most serious threat — climate change,” said attorney Sean Ryan from the Environmental Defenders Office Queensland.

“We asked the court to scrutinize if the environment minister was required to consider the climate change impacts from the burning of coal from the Carmichael mine and disappointingly, the federal court answered no.”

The court dismissed another challenge earlier this month brought by an Aboriginal group on the basis that Adani did not have their consent to build the mine.