The Pacific Climate Warriors, a youth-led climate action network affiliated with 350.org, has condemned the Australian government’s decision to expand the Saraji coal mine, extending operations by 30 years and adding 120 million tonnes of climate pollution.
In a statement on Monday, the climate group said the extension was announced as Australian Prime Minister Albanese met with Pacific leaders, maintaining that climate change is the “single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of Pacific people and communities.”
According to the group, the open-cut Saraji coal mine, owned by the BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA), will dig and export a further 55 million tonnes of coal between now and 2055, solidifying Australia’s position as the major fossil fuel polluter of the Pacific region and the largest coal exporter in the world.
Fenton Lutunatabua, 350.org Pacific and Caribbean program lead, described the extension as infuriating.
“It is infuriating. We just learned that the world will breach the 1.5°C limit by the end of the decade, and Australia has again used their geopolitical power to claim that the Pacific does not object to their fossil fuel expansions. We absolutely do object.
“News of a global overshoot should have lit the fire of urgency to phase out fossil fuels; instead we are watching an extra 55 million tonnes of coal be extracted, exported and burned at the cost of our survival,” Mr Lutunatabua said.
The group further noted that at the Pacific Forum Leaders meeting in Palau, leaders underscored the urgency of ambitious global climate action consistent with the best available science.
It added that the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)’s latest report confirmed that any long-lived, high-emission infrastructure “would lock us into a trajectory that makes future emissions reductions extremely difficult and denies us a chance at returning to the 1.5°C limit.
A 350.org campaigner, Jacynta Fa’amau, said, “Earlier this year, I stood at the foot of the Saraji mine and listened to the plight of First Nations custodians whose lands, streams and cultural heritage were plundered to make way for BMA’s coal expansion.
“These coal mines wreak havoc on people and the planet, both at the point of extraction in Australia and at the point of climate impact in the Pacific. Our frustration at this extension is as much for our Aboriginal and First Nations brothers and sisters, as it is for our own people.”