The Minns Labor Government has ensured coal projects will continue to be approved in-house instead of by the Independent Planning Commission (IPC) after voting against Greens amendments to the “Net Zero Future Committee Report: Emissions from the fossil fuel sector” to recommend coal projects must be independently assessed.
Greens MP and spokesperson for Climate Change and Planning Sue Higginson says:
“I moved this very simple amendment to this report to make good Labor’s own pre-election commitment to have coal projects independently assessed – I was shocked that they’ve teamed up with the Nationals and voted against their own position,”
“Coal exported from NSW is causing significant harm here and around the world. People are losing their lives, homes and landscapes because of the impacts of climate change. It’s astounding that Labor and the Nationals voted to let these deadly projects keep being approved without independent oversight,”
“Since the Minns Labor Government legislated our emissions reductions obligations in NSW, six mines totalling six million tonnes of collective greenhouse gas emissions have been approved without being referred to the Independent Planning Commission. This is despite Labor promising that new coal projects would be assessed independently,”
“This Committee was specifically established to have oversight of the Minns Labor Government’s legally enshrined obligations to reach net zero emissions, but they’ve stacked it with their own numbers and now the Nationals are helping keep coal approvals rolling along out of public view,”
“There should not be any new, expanded, or extended coal in NSW, and this report contains the evidence that approving any is actually against the law,”
“The Minns Labor Government cannot claim to be taking action on climate or staying true to the commitments they have made to the people of NSW when they have stopped this report from recommending all coal projects at the very least be independently assessed. It’s literally two-faced duplicity, with dire consequences” Ms Higginson said.
