Fossil fuel producers across the country are shifting uncomfortably, after the high court of Australia handed down its first climate case decision in MACH Energy v Denman Aberdeen Muswellbrook Scone Healthy Environment Group on Wednesday.

For the climate conscious, the outcome was largely what was hoped for: the court ruled that the Independent Planning Commission, the body that approved the extension of Mount Pleasant open-cut coalmine’s life by 22 years – doubling its output to 21m tonnes a year until 2048 – did not do enough to consider the mine’s scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions or how they might be mitigated.

Scope 3 emissions, which cover broad indirect emissions, include those that are produced downstream when the mine’s coal is burned by customers. In the case of the Mount Pleasant mine extension, these emissions accounted for 98% of its estimated climate footprint.

If this welcome news conjures ideas of a unified judicial manifesto against the climate harms of fossil fuel production, I’ll encourage you to consider it more moderately. It was a restrained and technical........

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