At a time of unprecedented drought and fire events throughout New South Wales, when our farmers, scientists and firies are calling for urgent action on climate change, the NSW Liberal National government is trying to introduce legislation to water down the environmental requirements for approving new coal and gas mines.
Burning coal is the biggest contributor to human-made climate change. It makes fires, heatwaves and drought worse. But the Minerals Council wants to weaken laws that require the climate change impacts of new coal and gas mines in NSW to be assessed as part of the planning approval process.
Coal mined here in NSW has led to around 500 million tonnes of carbon emissions - greater than total emissions from the UK or France.
Sign this petition to keep our environmental laws strong to stop our coal making global climate change worse.
Weakening the laws that require the full climate change impacts to be considered in the assessment of new coal mines is a dangerous backward step that will make climate change worse.
If NSW is genuine about its own goal of net zero emissions by 2050, this legislation should be abandoned.
