A company that earlier this year had a proposal for an open-cut coal mine refused partly on climate change grounds has decided not to appeal the decision.
In the first climate change judgment since the landmark 'Rocky Hill' test case, a court has warned against treating a policy provision on greenhouse gas emissions as "a magical incantation".
Highlights include court rulings in two states, NSW manuals on biodiversity assessment and floodplain risk, and new waste strategies in two states. Job listings include positions with the Clean Energy Regulator.
If Friday's Gloucester mine ruling stands, companies seeking project approvals will have to do a lot more to explain their carbon emissions abatement strategies, say leading law firms.
NSW Environment Court Chief Judge Brian Preston today refused consent for a mine, saying the greenhouse gas emissions from extracting and burning its coal are unacceptable.
Hearings start this week on a greenhouse gas challenge to a Peabody coal mine extension, based on alleged non-compliance with a decade-old state environmental policy.
In a decision worth millions of dollars to Centennial Coal, the NSW Supreme Court has ruled that a 2002 contract allows it to pass through to Delta Electricity a portion of its carbon charges.
Xstrata's Ulan Coal has lost an important legal costs battle, with the NSW Land and Environment Court rejecting its argument that an activist group had acted unreasonably in seeking to overturn or modify approval for the mine's expansion due to increased greenhouse gas emissions.