Press release – 6 March, 2012If approved, it would result in an extra 550 coal ships passing through the reef each year – on top of the more than 10,000 coal ships expected each year.The proposal, by Tenement to Terminal Limited, is for a new coal terminal to export 50 million tonnes of coal per year from the Port of Gladstone. Their media announcement yesterday stated that they have recently submitted their Initial Advice Statement to the Queensland Government.
“This is an industry that is spiraling out of control,” said John Hepburn, Senior Campaigner with Greenpeace Australia Pacific.
“This is an unbelievable slap in the face to UNESCO.”
“Already this month we face the approval of the world’s biggest coal port at Abbot Point – inside the World Heritage Area. But it’s hard to believe even the coal industry can be so brazen as to announce yet another new coal terminal in Gladstone on the day before UNESCO arrived to inspect damage caused by existing port proposals”.
“Julia Gillard and Tony Burke need to urgently put some limits on the expansion of this industry. The Great Barrier Reef is far too important to destroy for the short term self-interest of the coal industry.”
Greenpeace are calling for an immediate moratorium on approvals of major industrial development in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area while the first ever comprehensive strategic assessment of the reef is being conducted.
Click here
to view the report ‘Boom Goes the Reef’
For further comment contact:
James Lorenz 0400 376 021