Adani set to export coal from Australian coal mine after years of protest

New Delhi: After years of fierce opposition to the project, the Adani Group's Carmichael coal mine in Australia will begin exporting coal, tapping a new multi-decade source of the fossil fuel despite global pressure to phase it out.

As per reports, the Indian conglomerate, run by India's second-richest man Gautam Adani, is preparing its maiden coal exports and is due to begin shipping before the end of the year.

Adani's subsidiary Bravus Mining & Resources in a statement said that the first shipment of high-quality coal from the Carmichael mine is being assembled at the North Queensland Export Terminal in Bowen ready for export as planned.

The announcement comes just six weeks after the Glasgow climate summit (COP26), where the world agreed to phase down coal, Australia is opening the world's biggest new coal basin, the Galilee Basin in Queensland.

Adani says the first coal for export is "being assembled" at its coal port in Bowen, the North Queensland Export Terminal.

Adani has been facing opposition for ten years from Wangan and Jagalingou's traditional owners and climate campaigners.

Joseph Sikulu, 350.org Pacific Coordinator, while responding to the development said that when global governments have pledged to phase down coal, Adani is doing the opposite of this agreement.

"Adani and the governments who enabled them are throwing a wrecking ball at global efforts to protect the Pacific from the impacts of climate change. But we won't let them, we stand in solidarity with the Wangan and Jagalingou people.

"We are in the fight of our lives to stop dangerous climate change. We simply cannot afford for Adani's mine to expand to 60 million tonnes per year. We will fight to keep every single tonne of coal in the ground where it belongs."

On opposition to Adani's mine, Adrian Burragubba, Senior Elder and spokesperson for the Nagana Yarrbayn, Wangan and Jagalingou Cultural Custodians, said: "Wangan and Jagalinagou people first said no to Adani's mine in 2012, and we continue to say no. Adani has never had free prior and informed consent from the Wangan and Jagalingou people.

"We will continue to resist Adani's coal mine, practice our culture, and assert our human rights as the first nations people of this country. We are not going away: this is our land and we have human rights."

Wangan and Jagalingou people have been conducting the cultural ceremony Waddananggu for over 120 days on Wangan and Jagalingou country and Adani's mining lease.

Burragubba asserted that the ceremony will continue and said that their human rights to practice ceremony on the country must be respected.