RUBY:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am.

The controversial Adani coal mine in Queensland has already been approved by both state and federal governments. But, a new legal challenge by two teenagers could be one last roll of the dice to stop it from going ahead.

Today, writer for The Saturday Paper, Anna Krien, on the cracks opening up in the federal government’s case to approve Adani.

RUBY:

Anna, can you tell me about the person at the centre of this case - Brooklyn O'Hearn?

ANNA:

Sure. Brooklyn O'Hern is 17 years old. She's grown up in Townsville, which is in far north Queensland. Brooklyn was telling me how she's grown up under the spectra of climate change since she can remember.

Archival tape -- Brooklyn O’Hern:

“I do remember in primary school, you know, when we would start to learn about climate change, it was sort of ‘you can recycle!’ And they would teach us, you know, that's what we had to do, that we had to recycle and take shorter showers. Which is true…”

ANNA:

And in primary school, she would learn about climate change. But she told me that the school never mentioned that it was 100 big companies causing it, not them.

Archival tape -- Brooklyn O’Hern:

“They really focus on putting the blame on us rather than the people who are really causing it.”

ANNA:

And as she got older, she says she started to realize that she and her friends weren't entirely the problem. And it was a ‘school strike for climate’ poster, which she told me was hidden in the toilet stall at her high school.

Archival tape -- Brooklyn O’Hern:

“...Hidden in the school bathroom because my school is not supportive of it. So it was hidden in a toilet stall and I thought that might be interesting to go to…”

ANNA:

It was that particular poster that got her thinking that maybe she could actually do something about climate change.

Archival tape -- Brooklyn O’Hern:

“Yeah, ever since then I've just been super involved, loving it, doing everything I can.”

ANNA:

And this week, Brooklyn is sitting her year 12 exams in Townsville. And she also just happened to also send a legal request to the Environment Minister, Susan Ley, to revoke federal approval for the controversial Carmichael coal mine pursued by Adani, which is the Indian corporation.

RUBY:

So this is Adani's coal mine in Queensland, which at this point in time is set to go ahead. It's been granted its state and its federal approvals, but there has been a lot of opposition to this project, Anna, can you tell me a bit about it?

ANNA:

Yeah. So the Carmichael coal mine is currently looking at 10 million tonnes per year exporting thermal coal from central Queensland to India. And the mine has drawn immense controversy over its claimed economic benefits.

Archival tape -- Unidentified Speaker:

“It doesn't make economic sense. And Adani says it doesn't make economic sense because they said they won't build the mine unless we give them free coal, free water, free railway line…”

ANNA:

The environmental impact it will have as the coal is burnt, particularly on the Queensland environment, including, obviously, the Great Barrier Reef.

Archival tape -- Unidentified Reporter:

“They fear the Adani mine could destroy this precious resource.”

Archival tape -- Unidentified Speaker:

“If that Adani mine goes ahead it’s going to be devastating…”

ANNA:

And although Adani currently says that they only plan to export 10 million tonnes, the federal approval was for 60 million tonnes. Adani Australia says it's on track to start exporting that first coal from the mine next year. And the mine's approval has been challenged numerous times in court on environmental and planning grounds. So this challenge by Brooklyn is the latest attempt to stop that mine from going ahead.

RUBY:

And so how exactly did Brooklyn, who's this 17 year old school student in Townsville, how did they come to be launching a legal request like this to the environment minister?

ANNA:

So she met a fellow Queenslander, Claire Galvin, who lives in Cairns, which is four hours north of Townsville and who's 19 years old. And they met through the school strike for climate rallies.

Archival tape -- Brooklyn O’Hern:

“She’s just so passionate, especially about the climate and the environment and our communities…”

ANNA:

And Claire Galvin, in particular, you know, grew up next to the Great Barrier Reef and regularly visited the reef as a child. And it's basically her favorite place.

Archival tape -- Claire Galvin:

“I remember the first time I went snorkelling on the reef, it was just the most magnificent sight I'd ever seen. I remember like surfacing from the water and being like, oh, my God, it's a whole new world down there…”

ANNA:

In the last five years, the Great Barrier Reef has had three major distress signals, basically: three major coral bleaching events, all of which are a result of accelerating climate change. And Clare was really devastated by this.

Archival tape -- Claire Galvin:

“It's sort of that feeling of powerlessness that you get from watching something really terrible happen but not knowing what you can do about it...”

ANNA:

And she, through the school strike for climate rallies…

Archival tape -- Claire Galvin:

“Like the first strike, we had 50 people and then, the next one in 2019, we had 500. And I’ve never done anything quite like that in my life. And then it just grew from there…”

ANNA:

And she got in touch with Environmental Justice Australia, which is a legal firm, not-for-profit legal firm, and emailed a lawyer there called Ariane Wilkinson, basically saying, ‘what could she do?’ Was there a legal avenue she could pursue to help the Great Barrier Reef recover?

RUBY:

We’ll be back in a moment.

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RUBY:

Anna, we’re talking about a legal challenge to the federal approval to the Adani coal mine, that challenge is being led by two school students and a lawyer at Environmental Justice Australia, Ariane Wilkinson. Can you tell me what they’re basing this challenge on?

Archival tape -- Unidentified Reporter:

“The federal government is giving the go ahead for the biggest coal mine to ever be built in Australia, possibly the world...”

ANNA:

So, when the mine was originally approved in 2015 by the then Environment Minister Greg Hunt, the argument was that the Adani mine wouldn't really have a specific contribution to global warming.

Archival tape -- Unidentified Speaker:

“Some of the sparsest area in all of Australia, I don’t know how you say it has an impact on the reef…”

ANNA:

Because if it didn't go ahead, coal supply will be sourced from elsewhere.

Archival tape -- Unidentified Speaker:

“If it’s not Australian coal, if it’s not Adani’s coal, it will be somebody’s coal…”

ANNA:

So, Wilkinson had been doing a lot of thinking about how to challenge that approval. How in the absence of rigorous climate triggers, how to demonstrate significant impact from specific emissions.

RUBY:

And so what have they come up with?

ANNA:

According to Wilkinson, there's a crack opening up in this legal argument and that sort of comes to, they’ve, the two teenagers and Wilkinson have compiled three reports by three experts in their fields. Tim Buckley, a financial analysis. Paul Burke, an energy economist. And Bill Hare, a climate scientist. Now, Paul Burke's evidence is pretty incredible.

Archival tape -- Paul Burke:

“The key thing about the report was it challenges the assumption that large new coal mines would have zero emissions implications. That assumption is highly implausible.”

ANNA:

He says, it is much more likely that the extraction of coal from the mine would lead to a net increase in emissions. And he lists key factors for his reasoning. One of them is price effect.

Archival tape -- Paul Burke:

“If you're building a large new coal mine that increases the supply of coal on the market, which puts downward pressure on the price. So we'd expect, as a result of that to see more coal use…”

ANNA:

But I think what's most telling about Burke's evidence is that he talks about this factor called the signaling effect.

Archival tape -- Paul Burke:

“Developing a new coal basin would give a signal to other countries that the development of hydrocarbons and subsequent emissions from them are fair game.”

ANNA:

And not only does this undermine the global response to contain climate change, he writes, it encourages others to do the same. And I think that's a really important point.

RUBY:

Right, so they are arguing that the basis of the federal approval was incorrect and that actually, if this mine went ahead, it would encourage more mining… and that's the economic argument that they’re making against the approval. What about the other experts you mentioned? What's the climate argument?

ANNA:

Yes. So, Bill Hare is a climate scientist at the Murdoch University, widely respected.

Archival tape -- Bill Hare:

“Well I've been working in the climate field now for 30 years, and I’ve done a range of different scientific work…”

ANNA:

He does something really quite interesting with his evidence. He's calculated the emissions and sort of a fraction of the remaining carbon budget to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees.

Archival tape -- Bill Hare:

“There's only a limited amount of carbon that we can actually put in the atmosphere. And it's quite small, actually. And it turns out that the Adani mine will contribute a surprisingly high fraction of that carbon.”

ANNA:

Then he's projected that fraction onto the Great Barrier Reef. He says it's an illustration. It's not scientifically exact, but it's a way to gain perspective on what a specific impact emissions from the Galilee Basin caused by Carmichael when the two neighboring mines, what impact that would have on the Great Barrier Reef.

Archival tape -- Bill Hare:

“It's really a very significant number. And it's coming up at the worst possible time for global efforts to meet the Paris agreement…”

ANNA:

And at full flow, full coal shifting from those mines. He estimates that about 14000 to 18000 square kilometers of the Great Barrier Reef will be damaged or lost as a result.

Archival tape -- Bill Hare:

“Which is about the same area as Brisbane. So really significant areas in that sense.
And this work that I've done and the work of the other expert advisers really shows that this mine should never have been approved in the first place and that should it go ahead, it would be a very willful and wrong decision…”

ANNA:

And as Wilkinson says, sure, we can't prove those specific carbon molecules from the Carmichael mine and its neighbors won't kill those specific bits of reef. But that's the range. That's the apportion of blame. And is that significant? The environment minister is required to protect the Great Barrier Reef. And so these two teenagers and their climate lawyer are asking that exact question. Is this significant?

RUBY:

And can you tell me you've always been talking to Claire and Brooklyn about this case. What sense do you get from them about what they think, their chances of success? But also just more broadly about how important this legal challenge is to them?

ANNA:

So in terms of the response the teenagers can expect. Sadly, they could get no response from Ley, which would trigger their lawyer to ask for a statement of reason. And from there, there could be sort of a degree of of pulling apart the statement of reason and trying to find ways to prod it into a bit more of a truth telling process.

And I think it's incredibly important to them, and I think they stand to be laughed at and sort of diminished and dismissed as teenagers who don't know what they're talking about. But these are two teenagers who are living in a world where school exams and their first year at university, these milestones are insignificant in comparison to the understanding that they have of what's happening to the Great Barrier Reef, which they've both grown up alongside. It's in serious trouble and they want to fight to protect it

Archival tape -- Claire Galvin:

“The reef is such a beautiful place and it still is. But it's just so devastating to think that, you know, if politicians continue to promote the fossil fuel industry like this, this kind of thing is going to continue to happen. And it just makes me so mad that, like, you know, our governments are basically risking my future, but also risking the reef just to make a quick buck.”

ANNA:

Many of us who are the proponents of this mine, the politicians allowing it to go through, their climate lawyer, they won't be alive to see the real consequences of 1.5 degrees of warming. But these two teenagers will be and they have every right to fight for a better future.

Archival tape -- Claire Galvin:

“Standing with so many young people around Queensland and around Australia against the government and fossil fuel lobbies and industries is a big thing. And, I think, like, not just me, but all of the young people who have been disengaged and are now really engaging in politics and taking a stand is pretty powerful. And very exciting.”

RUBY:

Anna, thank you so much for your reporting on this and for talking to me today.

ANNA:

That's alright. Thanks Ruby.

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RUBY:

Also in the news today…

The Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has announced significant measures to lift Melbourne's lockdown, after the state went a day without any new coronavirus cases for the first time since June.

From 11:59pm on Tuesday retail shops, cafes, restaurants and bars will be able to reopen, subject to limits, and more than two households will be able to gather outdoors. The four essential reasons to leave home will be removed, allowing Melbourne residents to leave their home for any reason.

From 11:59pm Sunday November 8 the 25-kilometre limit on travel will be axed, and the border between Melbourne and regional Victoria will be removed.

Congratulations Victoria, you did it.

I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am. See ya tomorrow.