9 June 2017

The Hon Minister Frydenberg
Minister for the Environment and Energy
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600

By email: Josh.Frydenberg.MP@aph.gov.au

Dear Minister

Request for the revocation of the EPBC Approval No 2010/5736 – Carmichael Coal Mine and Rail
Infrastructure Project, Queensland
1. We act for Dr John Veron.
2. Dr Veron is a pre-eminent marine scientist known as the ‘Godfather of Coral,’ having discovered
20% of all coral species in the world. He has worked in all the major coral reef regions of the
world, participating in 66 expeditions and spending 7,000 hours scuba diving. Dr Veron was
formerly the Chief Scientist of the Australian Institute of Marine Science and has authored over
100 scientific articles, including 14 books and monographs foremost of which is the worldrenowned three-volume Corals of the World (year 2000). He has been the recipient of the
Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Underwater Science, the Darwin
Medal, the Silver Jubilee Pin of the Australian Marine Sciences Association, the Australasian
Science Prize and the Whitley Medal, among many other awards. Last year he released the
founding version of www.coralsoftheworld.org, a website ten years in the making and which is
already used by more than 4,000 people in 360 countries. This website, the book before it, and
his earlier foundation work on corals has underpinned virtually all marine parks and similar
conservation initiatives across the Indo-Pacific and now gives in-depth information on the effects
of climate change on coral reefs.1
3. As with many others in Australia and internationally, Dr Veron has observed with alarm the
bleaching events that have struck the Great Barrier Reef in the past two years. Although our
client has warned of such bleaching events and the impact of climate change on the reef for over
a decade, the bleaching episodes that have now occurred are at the extreme end of the spectrum
of his forecasts.
4. Dr Veron has instructed me to write to you to request that you exercise your power under
section 145 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (“EPBC Act”) to
revoke EPBC Approval No 2010/5736 for the Carmichael Coal Mine and Rail Infrastructure Project
(the Adani mine).

Environmental
Justice Australia
ABN 74052124375

PO Box 12123
A'Beckett Street PO
Melbourne VIC 8006
L3, 60 Leicester St, Carlton

T (03) 8341 3100
F (03) 8341 3111
E admin@envirojustice.org.au
W www.envirojustice.org.au

 5. As you will be aware, the Adani Mine was approved by the then Environment Minister, Greg Hunt,
in October 2015. The Great Barrier Reef has subsequently suffered its two worst bleaching
events. Although the full consequences of these bleaching events are still unclear, it is clear that
this these events constitute very important information about the reef that that was not before
Minister Hunt when he made the decision to approve the Adani mine.
6. Under section 145 of the EPBC Act, you have the power to revoke this approval if you believe that
the Adani mine will have a significant impact on the Great Barrier Reef that was not identified in
assessing the action, and that the approval granted on 14 October 2015 would not have been
granted if information that you now have about that impact had been available when the decision
to approve the action was made.
7. In our view, there is an ample basis for you to reach the conclusion that the conditions necessary
for you to revoke the approval under section 145 have been met.
8. The relevant information about the significant impact on the Great Barrier Reef is:


the scientific evidence about the 2016 and 2017 coral bleaching events on the Great Barrier
Reef;



overwhelming scientific evidence shows that the 2016 event would not have occurred without
human-caused greenhouse gas emissions; and



the certainty of future coral bleaching events due to human-caused greenhouse gas
emissions.

A selection of the available evidence to support these conclusions is summarised below.

2016 and 2017 coral bleaching events and attribution of causation to human-caused climate
change
9. As you are aware, in 2016 coral scientists recorded the worst incidence of mass coral bleaching in
the recorded history of the Great Barrier Reef.2 In March 2017 a second mass bleaching event on
the Great Barrier Reef, caused by warmer ocean temperatures, was confirmed.3 Severe bleaching
from this event was experienced in the middle third of the Great Barrier Reef whilst bleaching in
2016 was most severe in the northern third of the Great Barrier Reef.4 The combined impact of
these consecutive mass coral bleachings stretches for 1,500km, removing the chance for corals
within this stretch of the Great Barrier Reef to recover from the previous year’s bleaching.5
10. According to the results of a rapid attribution analysis of the 2016 Great Barrier Reef coral
bleaching event by coral scientists and climate scientists, increased sea temperatures caused by
climate change dramatically increase the likelihood of very hot March months like that of 2016 in
the Coral Sea and there is a vast increase in likelihood of hot March months because of the
human influence on the climate.6 That analysis also found that as sea temperatures increase due
to climate change, bleaching events are virtually certain to increase in frequency and severity.7

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 11. Due to ocean warming, 35% of the corals in the northern and central Great Barrier Reef have
died in 2016, with 50% mortality in the far northern section and 22% mortality across the entire
reef.8 A May 2016 report on coral reef studies underscores the gravity of the situation with the death of
over a third of the corals in the northern and central Great Barrier Reef in this year alone.9 Of particular
importance was a 700km swathe of the northern area of the Great Barrier Reef where on average
67% of shallow-water corals were lost.10
12. Evidence of the severity and extent of the 2017 bleaching comes from a host of personal
observations of prominent reef researchers including Dr Veron and summarised by Hughes and
Kerry,11 and was the subject of a summit meeting of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
Authority, 24–25 May 2017.
13. In addition to the new data about coral bleaching events, a new study published since Minister
Hunt’s decision on 14 October 2015 demonstrates that climate change disables the ability of coral
to tolerate bleaching.12 That study finds that although the pre-stress conditions of gradually
warming water have been tolerated by corals in the past, they are losing that tolerance with
temperature rises now occurring, and instead will be directly exposed to thermal stress.13 This
progressively reduces the resilience of coral to bleaching episodes.14
14. The proposed Adani mine will be one of the largest coal mines in the world,15 and it is estimated
that the mining and burning of coal from the mine will generate 4.7 billion tons of greenhouse
gas (“GHG”) emissions over its proposed 60-year operation.16 This will be among the highest
emissions from a single project anywhere in the world.17 The GHG emissions from the mine thus
represent a significant contribution to global GHG emissions and therefore to human-caused
climate change.
15. When your predecessor approved the proposed action of Adani Mining Pty Ltd to develop and
operate the Carmichael Coal Mine and Rail Infrastructure Project on 14 October 2015, information
about the extent and severity of the 2016 and 2017 coral bleaching events and the probability of
the increase in frequency and severity of coral bleaching events due to climate change noted
above was not before the him.18 In effect we have moved from scientific prediction which is open
to challenge to current reality which is there for all to see.
16. Minister Hunt’s approval of the action did not identify the significant impact that the project will
have on the Great Barrier Reef that has become evident with new information about the severity
of the 2016 and 2017 coral bleaching events, nor the increased likelihood of future bleaching
events due to GHG emissions and the contribution of further GHG emissions to the likelihood and
impacts of future coral bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef.

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 Request that based on this new information you revoke EPBC Approval No 2010/5736
17. As stated above, we consider that this new information about the impact of GHG emissions from
the burning of the Carmichael coal will have on the Great Barrier Reef, in particular through
causing future devastating coral bleaching events, provides an ample basis for you to conclude the
conditions for you to exercise your power under section 145 of the EPBC Act to revoke EPBC Approval
No 2010/5736 have been met.
18. We acknowledge that whether you exercise the power available to you under section 145 is at your
discretion – there is no compulsion to exercise that power available in light of the evidence outlined
above. We acknowledge too, that to revoke an approval would be a very serious step and a power that
should only be exercised in exceptional circumstances.
19. It is submitted, however, that the very significant bleaching events that have occurred for the past two
consecutive years do in fact constitute exceptional circumstances. Maintaining the approval for the
Adani mine under the EPBC Act is inconsistent with the need to protect the Great Barrier Reef from
climate change. You have it within your power to revoke the approval, and we ask that you do so.
20. The future of the Great Barrier Reef is now clearly at stake.

Yours faithfully

Brendan Sydes
Lawyer

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 Notes
1

Veron, J.E.N. (2009) A Reef in Time: the Great Barrier Reef from Beginning to End. Harvard University Press.
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Coral Bleaching Taskforce documents most severe bleaching on record
(29 March 2016), http://www.coralcoe.org.au/media-releases/coral-bleaching-taskforce-documents-most-severe-bleachingon-record; ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Only 7% of the Great Barrier Reef has avoided coral bleaching
(April 20, 2016), http://www.coralcoe.org.au/media-releases/only-7-of-the-great-barrier-reef-has-avoided-coral-bleaching
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Scientist witnesses severe coral bleaching (21 March 2016),
http://www.coralcoe.org.au/media-releases/scientist-witnesses-severe-coral-bleaching; Pratchett, M., and Lough, J., The
Conversation, Coral Bleaching Taskforce: more than 1,000km of the Great Barrier Reef has bleached (7 April 2016),
https://theconversation.com/coral-bleaching-taskforce-more-than-1-000-km-of-the-great-barrier-reef-has-bleached-57282
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Current conditions on the Reef, http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/visit-the-reef/currentconditions-on-the-great-barrier-reef Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Coral bleaching (Updated: 12 April 2017),
http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/media-room/coral-bleaching).
3 ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Two-thirds of Great Barrier Reef hit by back-to-back mass coral bleaching
(10 April 2017), https://www.coralcoe.org.au/media-releases/two-thirds-of-great-barrier-reef-hit-by-back-to-back-masscoral-bleaching.
4 Above.
5 Above.
6 Hoegh-Guldberg, O., King, A., Karoly, D., Black, M., Perkins-Kirkpatrick, S., The Conversation, Great Barrier Reef bleaching
would be almost impossible without climate change (29 April 2016), https://theconversation.com/great-barrier-reefbleaching-would-be-almost-impossible-without-climate-change-58408 ; ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System
Science, Barrier reef attribution study: data and methodology (28 April 2016),
https://www.climatescience.org.au/content/976-barrier-reef-attribution-study-data-and-methodology. See also Slezak, M.,
The Guardian, Great Barrier Reef bleaching made 175 times likelier by human-caused climate change, say scientists (28 April
2016), http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/29/great-barrier-reef-bleaching-made-175-times-likelier-byhuman-caused-climate-change-say-scientists.
7 Hoegh-Guldberg, O., et al, Great Barrier Reef bleaching would be almost impossible without climate change, above; ARC
Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Great Barrier Reef risks losing tolerance to bleaching events (15 April 2016),
http://www.coralcoe.org.au/media-releases/great-barrier-reef-risks-losing-tolerance-to-bleaching-events.
8 ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Coral death toll climbs on Great Barrier Reef (30 May 2016),
https://www.coralcoe.org.au/media-releases/coral-death-toll-climbs-on-great-barrier-reef; Great Barrier Reef Marine Park
Authority, The facts on Great Barrier Reef coral mortality (3 June 2016).
9 Above.
10 ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Life and Death after Great Barrier Reef bleaching (10 April 2017),
https://www.coralcoe.org.au/media-releases/life-and-death-after-great-barrier-reef-bleaching .
11 Hughes, T and Kerry, J., Back to back bleaching has now hit two thirds of the Great Barrier Reef (12 April 2017).
https://theconversation.com/back-to-back-bleaching-has-now-hit-two-thirds-of-the-great-barrier-reef-76092.
12 Hoegh-Guldberg, O., et al, Great Barrier Reef bleaching would be almost impossible without climate change, above n 7;
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, Great Barrier Reef risks losing tolerance to bleaching events (15 April 2016),
above n 6.
13 Hoegh-Guldberg, O., et al, Great Barrier Reef bleaching would be almost impossible without climate change, above n 6.
14 Above, n 6.
15 See, for example, Agius, K., ABC News, Adani’s Carmichael mine gains final Queensland Government environmental
approval (2 February 2016), http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-02/adanis-carmichael-mine-gains-final-stateenvironmental-approval/7134638 .
16 Statement of reasons for approval of a proposed action under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation
Act 1999 (Cth), EPBC 2010/5736, 14 October 2015, paragraph 136.
17 Adani Mining Pty Ltd v Land Services of Coast and Country Inc & Ors [2015] QLC 48 (15 December 2015), paragraphs 433 –
436, http://archive.sclqld.org.au/qjudgment/2015/QLC15-048.pdf .
18 Statement of reasons for approval of a proposed action under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation
Act 1999 (Cth), EPBC 2010/5736, 14 October 2015, http://epbcnotices.environment.gov.au/_entity/annotation/45c02035e672-e511-b93f-005056ba00a7/a71d58ad-4cba-48b6-8d ab-f3091fc31cd5?t=1466649669373 .
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