High Court says NSW must count the coal burned overseas
A 3–2 ruling on the Mount Pleasant mine near Muswellbrook means planners can't ignore emissions from exported coal.
What the source says
- Three of five High Court judges sided with the Hunter Valley residents' group DAMSHEG, finding that NSW planning authorities must weigh the emissions from fossil fuels burned overseas when they approve a mine.
- The Mount Pleasant open-cut mine near Muswellbrook had its expansion approved by NSW planning authorities in 2022. The NSW Court of Appeal halted that approval in July 2025, and operator MACH Energy appealed to the High Court.
- MACH Energy wants to dig 444 million tonnes of coal through to 2048. Burning that coal would release more than 870 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent, almost all of it outside Australia.
- The court found the Independent Planning Commission needed to consider imposing conditions to minimise, to the greatest extent practicable, all greenhouse gas emissions, not just those at the mine gate.
- Anita O'Hart, the residents' principal lawyer, said the High Court had confirmed planning authorities cannot ignore the chain of causation from a project's emissions. DAMSHEG president Wendy Wales said you cannot dig up coal, ship it overseas and watch it drive climate change without the consequences coming home.
- MACH Energy said it would review the decision and that clear legal principles benefit proponents, regulators and communities alike. It noted a separate NSW permit from August lets the mine keep operating until the end of 2032.
- University of Melbourne's Liz Hicks said the decision turns on NSW law, so its direct effect on other states is limited, though courts across the country will take note.
Source: ABC News, 2026-10-07
Why it matters here
Muswellbrook is two hours down the road, and the same NSW planning rules now apply to any mine, quarry or gas well proposed on the Mid North Coast: the emissions count all the way to the furnace.
Three judges to two, so don't anyone pretend it was obvious. Four hundred and forty-four million tonnes is a lot of coal to call somebody else's problem once it's on the ship. The company's still digging till 2032 regardless, mind. Right. Who's doing the sums on the next one, and are they counting past the gate this time?
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