The mine, approved by the NSW Independent Planning Commission (IPC), now has approval to operate to 2045, generating 809 million tonnes of climate pollution, equivalent to almost two years of Australia's national emissions.
"This is not a 'just transition'. It's not even a transition. It's an expansion," said Rod Campbell, Research Director at The Australia Institute.
"The government pretends it's ok to dig up more coal in the Hunter Valley because someone, somewhere else promised to do something to reduced emissions.
"This approval shows that Australia's climate policies are working exactly as the government intended: pretend to be tackling emissions reduction while carrying on expanding coal.
"Australia's climate policies are designed to safeguard fossil fuel projects like this one, and carbon offsets are central to this.
"The decision states on page 1 that the climate impacts of the huge coal mine 'are managed effectively within the parameters of the NSW and Commonwealth statutory and policy regimes'.
"Scientists say there should be no new coal mines, but NSW decision makers say this huge mine is fine because of 'requirements for minimisation and offsets'.
"The approval text says that carbon offsets have "real environmental benefits" not once, not twice, but three times.
"This is partly a result of key figures in NSW environment groups spending months, if not years, promoting and developing dodgy carbon offset proposals.
"It is astonishing that NSW decision makers think the emissions of a huge coal mine can be fixed with offsets, while actual coal burning companies say "offsets do not prevent or undo the harms caused by burning fossil fuels" like EnergyAustralia has.
"The recent debate around native forest offsets has greenwashed Australia's fraudulent carbon offset regime, helping the IPC make this terrible decision.
"This is another demonstration that the climate policies of the NSW and Federal governments are working just as intended."
