Adani’s Coal Mine Revoked by Oz Court
The decision of the Australian federal court to revoke the government’s environmental approval for Adani groups has come as a major setback for the latter’s plan, who intended to build one of the world’s largest coal mines on Australian soil with an investment of $10 billion on the concerned project.
An Indian multinational conglomerate company, Adani was founded in 1988 by Gautam Adani. It is headquartered in Ahmedabad, India. The company has diversified businesses which include resources, logistics, agri-business, and energy sectors.
Gautam Adani is the founder & chairman of Adani Group states that the Group was created with a vision of ‘Nation Building’. The task was to develop assets of national economic significance. The motto of “Nation Building” is clearly visible in the choice of businesses the group has entered and developed over the years.
As per the ruling of the Australian court two species namely the yakka skink and the ornamental snake would be directly affected through this project, hence the court decided to put a stay on the government’s environmental clearance obtained by the company in July 2014.
Since the court has passed a stay order on the approval given to Carmichael mine, located in the north of the Galilee Basin the Australian environment minister, Greg Hunt will reconsider the clearance given to the above-mentioned project. And according to the statement of the Australian government, this process may take up to six to eight weeks before they reach a final conclusion.
As per the statement recorded from the Australian environment ministry regarding the whole situation, the officials said “This is a technical, administrative matter, and to remove this doubt, the department has advised that the decision should be reconsidered.”
While Adani avoided any direct or immediate response on the halt of the project but later Adani Australian website did comment on the ruling of the federal court and called it “technical legal error”. The statement from the website was as follows “It is regrettable that a technical legal error from the federal environment department has exposed the approval to an adverse decision. We have been advised that because certain documents were not presented by the department in finalizing the approval, it created a technical legal vulnerability that it is better to address now”.
The approval from the environmental ministry was challenged by Mackay Conservation Group earlier this year. Ellen Roberts one of the representatives of the conservation group said “There has been a huge level of concern. Our court case, for example, was funded just by the Australian people making small donations.”
The Chief Executive of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Kelly O’Shanassy commented that the court’s decision regarding the approval of the mine was based on the identification of some of the problems in the context of clearance. In her statement, she said “The re-approval won’t be the end of challenges because there are fundamental problems relating to some endangered black-throated finches. Also, evidence has come up that the mine would dry up critical springs and wetlands”.
