Non-approval until further action recommended

The Land Court of Queensland issued its recommendation in Re Sungela Pty Ltd & Anor [2025] QLC 5 on Mar. 20, 2025, after hearing the matter on the papers on Oct. 15, 2024. The proceeding concerned an application by Sungela Pty Ltd and Bowen Investment (Australia) Pty Ltd for a new mining lease, MLA 700061, to extend operations at the Ensham thermal coal mine in Queensland’s Central Bowen Basin. Because objections had been lodged—three remained, but none were prosecuted—the application was referred to the Court for a recommendation to the responsible Minister under section 269 of the Mineral Resources Act 1989.  ￼

President P.G. Stilgoe recorded that an environmental authority covering the broader extension project had already issued, but emphasized the Court’s distinct recommendatory task under the MRA. The Court identified the standard suite of section 269(4) factors and treated the objectors’ issues—ranging from assessment-process flaws to biodiversity, groundwater, cumulative impacts, economic demand, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions/climate change—even though the objectors elected not to participate. The applicants ultimately relied on affidavits from company-connected witnesses rather than independent technical experts, prompting the Court to assess those materials with particular care when weighing their relevance and probative value.  ￼

On the statutory criteria, the Court accepted evidence that the lease area was mineralized (roughly 85 million tonnes of high-energy, low-ash thermal coal), that mining would proceed via extensions to existing underground workings with no need for new surface infrastructure, and that the proposed size, shape, and a 25-year term were otherwise suitable to realize extraction and complete rehabilitation and closure by about 2050. The Court also recorded that the lease would overlap only minimally with other resource tenures and, based on the material before it, would not disadvantage existing permit holders.  ￼

As to environmental effects, the Court considered flora, fauna, groundwater, surface water, and cumulative impacts. Based on the technical reports tendered, it accepted that predicted local environmental impacts could be managed through conditions and monitoring under the environmental authority, with minimal adverse effects anticipated if the extension proceeded as proposed.  ￼

The decisive issue was climate change. While the record included various quantifications of Scope 1–2 emissions and an estimate of total Scope 3 emissions of approximately 63.6 Mt CO₂-e over 20 years (about 3.18 Mt CO₂-e per year on average), the applicants did not persuade the Court that they had made “real and significant” progress on mitigation. In particular, the Court noted the absence of the required GHG emissions reduction management plan and a lack of concrete evidence that proposed measures (e.g., methane flaring and other efficiencies) had been implemented or advanced beyond aspiration. Given that GHG emissions from the lease would contribute, however modestly in percentage terms, to climate change, the Court determined that a positive recommendation could not be made on the evidence supplied.  ￼

The Court also addressed Queensland’s Human Rights Act 2019 (s. 58), recognizing—consistent with prior Land Court authority (Waratah)—that activities increasing GHG emissions can engage and limit protected rights, including the right to life and the protection of children. On the materials before it, and without relying on the environmental authority process to resolve human-rights balancing, the Court concluded that whether such limitations were reasonable or justifiable depended in part on credible mitigation steps—which the applicants had not adequately demonstrated.  ￼

Accordingly, on Mar. 20, 2025, the Land Court recommended that MLA 700061 “not be approved unless and until” the applicants show real and significant progress toward mitigating their GHG emissions, and directed the Registrar to provide the reasons to the Minister administering the MRA.  ￼

Re Sungela Pty Ltd & Anor

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Re Sungela Pty Ltd & Anor - order

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

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A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

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The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

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Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Conditions that enhance the feasibility of adaptation options. Enabling conditions include finance, technological innovation, strengthening policy instruments, institutional capacity, multi-level governance and changes in human behaviour and lifestyles.

Actions or measures to adapt freshwater systems to climate change.

Action or measure that increases resilience of societal, cultural and natural heritage to climate change impacts.

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Hot temperature extremes are daily maximum temperatures  that were exceeded on average once in a decade or once in 50 years, and includes heatwaves.

The release of heat-trapping gases, primarily from human activities such as burning fossil fuels, agriculture and industry.

A long-lived, colourless gas, chiefly emitted from fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and cement production.

A potent, short-lived greehouse gas, largely released from livestock, fossil fuel extraction and waste management.

Actions to reduce emissions in energy generation and supply.

Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.

Terrestrial means "of the earth" and relates to the risks to ecological system that includes all living organisms and their interactions within land-based environments, such as forests, grasslands, and deserts.

Air pollution involves harmful contaminants in the air, affecting both indoor and outdoor environments. It can lead to health issues like respiratory diseases and heart problems, and climate impacts such as global warming. Pollutants can damage plants, trees, habitats, and water bodies like rivers and lakes.

Oil is a combustible liquid fossil fuel composed mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring as crude oil and refined into petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene.

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People with different national or cultural traditions from the dominant population

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Any compulsory, unrequited payment to the government levied on corporations or individuals. This can be for environmental reasons, such as introducing a Carbon tax to set a price that emitters must pay for the greenhouse gases they emit.

Activities of industries that extract natural resources, such as mining, oil, and gas, for commercial use.

The activities of industries that transforms raw materials into finished goods through industrial processes.

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This sector involves activities to move goods and people, alongside the storage of products.

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Slow onset events evolve gradually from incremental changes over many years or from increased frequency or intensity of recurring events. As defined in the Cancun Adaptation Framework (2010), slow onset events include risks and impacts from rising temperatures, desertification, biodiversity loss, land and forest degradation, glacial retreat, ocean acidification, sea level rise, and salinization.

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Re Sungela Pty Ltd & Anor - order

Target

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Renewable energy

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance