Whitehaven Coal is planning more new or expanded coal projects in Australia than any other company operating. Whitehaven Coal is the biggest undiversified coal company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and is already listed among the world’s top climate polluters. To make matters worse, Whitehaven Coal are planning to more than double their current coal production with six new or expanded coal projects that would see them mining coal into the next century.
Together, Whitehaven’s proposed coal projects could see an additional 3 billion tonnes of coal dug up and burned - unleashing over 8 billion tonnes of carbon emissions. This is equivalent to about 22% of the total annual energy-related emissions for the entire world. And more than 16 times Australia’s total annual domestic emissions from all sources.
Whitehaven Coal’s impact on the global climate is made even worse by the significant amounts of methane emitted from their coal mines. Methane is a highly potent greenhouse gas with a short-term warming impact 80 times greater than carbon dioxide. Analysis by Ember has shown that Whitehaven Coal have been massively underestimating their methane emissions. Methane emissions at Whitehaven Coal’s Narrabri coal mine are 5 times higher than Whitehaven estimated in their Environmental Impact Statements. Whitehaven Coal are planning a significant expansion of their Narrabri coal mine, which would make it the gassiest coal mine in Australia. Alarmingly, Whitehaven Coal could create an additional 1 million tonnes of methane by 2050.
The International Energy Agency and the world’s scientists say all coal expansion must stop immediately in order to achieve the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global heating below the safer limit of 1.5’C and reach net zero emission by 2050. But Whitehaven has justified its coal expansion plans by referring to coal demand scenarios consistent with 3'C of global heating - a truly catastrophic level of heating that would bring widespread ecological and societal collapse.
Whitehaven’s proposed coal expansion flies in the face of global efforts to combat climate change and will lead to more intense and frequent extreme weather events like the fires, floods and heatwaves that are already devastating Australian communities. For the sake of a safe and liveable climate, Whitehaven Coal’s new coal projects must be stopped.