Introduction
Gloucester Resources Limited v Minister for Planning
[2019] NSWLEC 7
In an Australian first, development consent for a new coal mine
was refused by the Land and Environment Court of NSW (the Court)
for reasons that included its material greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions and contribution to climate change.
This decision is the latest in a long line of climate change
litigation cases, and part of an increasing trend in NSW and
Victoria, and internationally, for proceedings to be brought
opposing development on the basis of climate change. This
represents an additional approval risk of which companies need to
be aware and which they need to adequately address in the
application and assessment process. The extent to which the Court
addressed the issue of climate change on a global scale marks this
as a landmark decision which significantly enhances the role of GHG
emissions in the assessment of mining, as well as other major
developments, in NSW.
