Australia is the country which, within the G20, emits the most greenhouse gases per capita: roughly three times that of France. And yet the government has just authorized once again the expansion of a coal mine.
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The mine in question will be able to extract 52 million tonnes of additional coal over the next eight years, at a time when the scientific community but also the United Nations are calling on producing countries like Australia to almost completely stop this activity. In just a month, the Department of the Environment issued such permits to three different coal mines, all of which are in New South Wales, the state where Sydney is located.
These choices of the government of Scott Morrison are strongly denounced. For example by the president of Greenpeace in Australia: “It is a shame that the Australian government continues to allow the expansion of coal mines, asserts David Ritter. The truth is, we can’t afford to start new fossil fuel projects in Australia.“And that’s not just the opinion of an environmental activist. According to a recent poll, climate change is perceived as a critical threat to Australia’s vital interests by 61% of the population.
Australia has been hit by drought for ten years, there have been gigantic forest fires that ravaged the country less than two years ago. Environmental issues are very present in the public debate, but the mining industry in Australia is an extremely powerful lobby. And there are very close links, to put it mildly, between this economic environment and the political world, accuses David Ritter: “It’s very disturbing that Scott Morrison’s own chief of staff is a former lobbyist for the coal industry. “
“This is an example of the system of influence and lobbying between the fossil fuel industry and the Morrison government.”
David Ritter, Greenpeace Australiato franceinfo
What Scott Morrison regularly highlights is that this industry brings in money, and especially that it generates jobs. But this argument too, it is brushed aside by David Ritter: “These arguments are false because there is no secure economy in the future that depends on fossil fuels. On the other hand, the climate crisis threatens tens of thousands of jobs in many sectors, such as agriculture and tourism. The Great Barrier Reef alone employs more than 60,000 people. “
The coal industry employs 39,000 people in Australia.