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This is the number of new jobs that Adani, and some politicians, claimed the original plan would create.

A survey of 18 countries across the US and Europe found a 2.2% decrease in emissions over the past 10 years. And Bloomberg reports a 5% decrease year-on-year in coal-based energy generation for the US and Europe.

Melissa Price, federal environment minister, approved Adani’s groundwater management plan on April 8th 2019, three days before the election was called. She stated that she was acting on the advice from a review by the CSIRO and GeoScience Australia.

The previous estimated cost for the mine was $16.5 billion.

10,000 new jobs

Details leaked to the ABC showed the review actually found that Adani’s modelling was “not suitable to ensure the outcomes sought by the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Protection Act are met” and that advice for the approval was rushed through in a single afternoon. The review found that the modelling was “not sufficiently robust”, over-predicting flows back into the aquifiers it was drawing on and using incorrect measurements for calibration.

1,464 jobs

After it was unable to source finance from any major bank in Australia (or others internationally), Adani announced it would self-finance a smaller $2 billion version.

Previous plans to expand required dredging for a second terminal, but Adani now plans to expand the existing terminal from 50MT to 60MT per year (down from the originally planned 90MT per year).

But this is the net number of new full-time equivalent jobs, both direct and indirect, that Adani's special witness, Jerome Fahrer, told the Queensland Land Court that plan would create, factoring in construction, ongoing employment and job losses from other major projects.

a vast underground reservoir which spans most of Queensland and parts of the NT, South Australia and northern NSW.

So what are the likely environmental impacts?

Around 200 small towns draw their water from the basin’s aquifers, with most taking an allotment of between 100-500 million litres of water per year.

And this is the number that appears on the approval documents on the Queensland Department of State Development's projects website for the original plan.

Clear information about what the revised project will include is hard to come by. Approvals still reference the original project. The original plans included:

• 6 open-cut pits,

Adani was granted a 60 year lease in 2017 on unlimited volumes of water from the

Great Artesian Basin,

But even given the grant, access to that water is conditional on both state and federal approval of environmental plans. And there have been disputes over this process.

The Adani Carmichael mine site, and the connecting rail link, also intersect with several endangered and vulnerable species.

The endangered black-throated finch has already lost 80% of its habitat, mainly thanks to agriculture. The federal government approved the clearing of 16,500 hectares of black-throated finch habitat for the mine, but on May 2nd 2019 the state government advised it could not approve Adani’s Black-throated Finch Management Plan because it failed to meet the requirements of the company's environment authority.

The original estimate for the Adani Carmichael mine’s water usage from the basin was 12 billion litres per year.

Adani now says it will make use of existing infrastructure and needs only 200km of new rail under its revised plan. At this stage the Queensland government says it has yet to see a new design or the required lease applications.

The ornamental snake is listed as vulnerable and was the subject of a court case that saw the Federal Court overturn the mine’s approval in 2015. The then federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, and the Queensland government reconsidered conservation advice and reapproved it later that year.

So what about the actual coal?

The vulnerable squatter pigeon’s habitat is much larger, but the entire Carmichael mine site is within its territory. Like the Black-throated finch, much of its habitat (particularly in the south) has already become unsuitable – mostly due to agriculture.

Shipping the coal to the international market requires an expansion of the Abbot Point Coal Terminal (also owned by Adani).

Adani says the mine will produce 10-15 million tonnes of coal a year, with the capacity to go up to 27 million tonnes at peak. This could mean anywhere from 600 million tonnes to 1.6 billion tonnes over its 60 year lifespan.

Local housing and an airport will likely still also be needed.

The waxy cabbage palm is a vulnerable species of palm found exclusively in the area that surrounds the Carmichael mine site.

In February 2019, Adani was fined for releasing stormwater with double the amount of allowed suspended solids (things like silt, gravel, dirt or coal) into the nearby Caley Valley Wetlands.

It will produce two kinds of coal:

The revised estimate for the smaller project is 4.6 billion litres of water per year.

When burned, that coal will generate greenhouse gases equivalent to 4.49 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.

The yakka skink is another vulnerable species that was part of the court case that saw Adani’s mine approval briefly overturned in 2015. The mine and connecting rail are directly within its habitat.

But the environmental impacts aren’t limited to the site of the mine.

And while the final approval requires Adani to provide offsets for the species displaced – allocating land and strategies to address the loss of habitat – an analysis of the Adani offsets has described them as "completely inadequate".

While the price of coal is high – which should help Adani – cheap renewables will be increasingly used in India and China. Plants in Australia with planned 40-50 year lifespans are predicted to only make money for 30, and stop/start operations are potentially shortening plant longevity even further. The profitability of the global coal market is becoming less clear.

It was originally planned to be Australia’s largest coal mine (and possibly the largest in the world).

Earlier plans to dump dredge spoil within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park were already cancelled before the mine was downsized.

Finish

• and a 189km link to a total 388km of rail.

It’s 160 km away.

For comparison, the estimated total amount of carbon dioxide released by fossil fuels in 2017 globally will be 37 billion tonnes.

But the Queensland government alleges that in 2017 Adani released water with eight times the legal amount of suspended solids into the reef. It could be fined up to $2.7 million for the breach.

It’s now planned to be of a similar scale to other major Australian coal mines:

High quality, low ash coal for the Chinese market

The closest town, Clermont, has a population of just 3,031 people.

• 5 underground mines,

So how many jobs will the project create?

BHP - Mount Arthur (NSW) Adani - Carmichael BMA - Blackwater (QLD)

Up to 6,395 jobs

• 5 infrastructure areas,

• an onsite coal processing plant,

Low quality, higher polluting coal for the Indian market

15 megatonnes (MT) 10-15 MT 13 MT

But what’s the payoff for all of this impact?

This is the site of the proposed Adani Carmichael Coal Mine.

Output per year

It’s difficult to say if the mine will actually be profitable. Experts were already raising doubts at the original plan’s full capacity.

Adani claims the new project will create 1,500 direct jobs and 6,750 indirect jobs (based on Queensland Resources Council – a mining lobby group – modelling).

(3,920 ongoing)

Juru Enterprises Limited (JEL), which the High Court found was actually the responsible body, lodged an application to repeal the ILUA earlier this year.

Adani did obtain an Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) for the area, which gave them freehold title over the land for its operations, setting aside native title because the mine was considered “critical infrastructure”.

The Doongmabulla Springs are a 4km² complex of wetlands, located close to the Adani Carmichael mine site.

JEL says that Adani’s expansion is likely to “injure or desecrate” burial sites, ochre ground and significant rock paintings. Adani has previously said it could continue without JEL agreement.

Adani is also facing legal action from the traditional owners of the land that both the mine and rail will occupy.

The Wangan and Jagalingou traditional owners are appealing the decision of the Federal Court, taking the case all the way to the High Court, which will consider it this month (May 2019).

They are a small oasis fed by fresh groundwater and are nationally significant. There are ecological communities within the springs that are found nowhere else in the world.

While an ILUA was previously negotiated for this area in 2014, last year the High Court found that it was negotiated with the wrong body.

The springs are the site from which the Rainbow Serpent, Mundunjudra, left to shape the land. Adrian Burragubba, W&J spokesperson, said of the case, “the water is our life. It is our dreaming and our sovereignty. We cannot give that away." A review found the mine could permanently drain the site.

The area surrounding Abbot Point is the traditional land of the Juru people.

The Guardian reported that the body that negotiated the ILUA – the Kyburra Munda Yalga Aboriginal Corporation – received $2 million from Adani, at a time when the corporation was struggling. It has since been put in special administration.

The site of the expanded Abbot Point terminal and rail connectionis also under dispute.

And the issues aren’t just about environmental impact.

They are also the most sacred site of the Wangan and Jagalingou people, the traditional owners of the land where the Carmichael mine is planned.

In February 2019, Adani was fined for releasing stormwater with double the amount of allowed suspended solids (things like silt, gravel, dirt or coal) into the nearby Caley Valley Wetlands.

This is the number of new jobs that Adani, and some politicians, claimed the original plan would create.

JEL says that Adani’s expansion is likely to “injure or desecrate” burial sites, ochre ground and significant rock paintings. Adani has previously said it could continue without JEL agreement.

This is the number of new jobs that Adani, and some politicians, claimed the original plan would create.