MORE SCOPE FOR BETTER CLIMATE POLICY

The Galilee Basin in Queensland's Central West is the site for the new mega mine phenomenon, which calls into question the Climate Policy of both of the major political parties.

The concept of mega mines is due to lower quality thermal coal in this area that has infrastructure costs up to 100 times more than other coal sites, hence the huge areas to be mined and the huge cost to the environment. To get a feel for this, the Wandoan Coal Mine, a mega mine, covers an area of 32000 hectares, comprising 14 pits and producing 30 million tonnes of coal each year. That is 320 square kilometres and 49 mega tonnes of carbon dioxide annually from one mine alone.

Wandoan Sample Pit

Both the government and opposition climate policies have an aim of 5% reduction by 2020. The Labour Party plan to achieve this through the carbon tax and switch to renewable energy sources whilst the Liberal Party state that they will aim for a reduction in carbon emissions of 140 mega tonnes by this date. With the growth in mega mines it is hard to see how this can be achieved.

And all of this is based on the countries Scope 1 & 2 emissions, the direct and indirect 2% discharges, but does not take into account Australia's Scope 3 emissions, the indirect upstream/downstream 98% discharges, e.g. burning coal. Even major mining companies such as Xstrata are going beyond best practice and including these Scope 3 figures in their EIA's, Environmental Impact Assessments to match other global companies.

Should Australia take these into consideration? As Dr Chris McGrath, Senior Lecturer (Environmental Regulation) at the University of Queensland, said today at a Seminar on Environmental Impact Statements, "Coal is only mined to be burnt." So as a country we are on selling not just the physical product but the emissions that go with it. Australia accepts responsibility for uranium and its end usage and coal is no different.


When Scope 3 emissions are taken into account, our countries climate policy looks dismal and so is the prospect of keeping our carbon budget under the 2 degree Celsius increase. The graphs and Dr Malte Meinshausen's, from the University of Melbourne, explanation below tells the story;

"Two possible futures. One in which no climate policies are implemented (red), and one with strong action to mitigate emissions (blue). Shown are fossil CO2 emissions (top panel) and corresponding global warming (bottom panel). The shown mitigation pathway limits fossil and land-use related CO2 emissions to 1000 billion tonnes CO2 over the first half of the 21st century with near-zero net emissions thereafter. Greenhouse gas emissions of this pathway in year 2050 are ~70% below 1990 levels. Without climate policies, global warming will cross 2°C by the middle of the century. Strong mitigation actions according to the blue route would limit the risk of exceeding 2°C to 25%" M. Meinshausen et al. (2009)

The climate policy decisions that are made now and the unbridled increase in coal mining have immense repercussion for the unforeseen generations and in Dr McGrath's words on climate change, "... all of humanities futures will be affected now."