Stakeholder

Sustainability Requirements

The Australian and Central Queensland government

·         Increased revenue streams, through taxation, to finance development projects (Adani Australia., 2019).

·         Raise GDP per capita through creation of job opportunities.

Adani Mining Group

·         Meet the organization’s economic objectives and sustain its growth.

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How Sustainability Requirements are integrated into the Project

The sustainability requirements identified in the previous section – stakeholder assessment – can be classed into three broad categories; that is, economic development/prosperity, environmental protection and conservation, and social advancement. For instance, the requirements of the Central Queensland government and the Adani Mining Group fall under economic prosperity, whereas those of the local communities and environmental protection agencies and activists fall under social advancement and environmental conservation, respectively. This section looks at how these three key stakeholder requirements will be integrated in the Adani Mine project in order to achieve and demonstrate the project’s commitment to sustainability.

1. Economic Development

As aforementioned, economic prosperity is the key requirement of the Central Queensland government, as one of the major stakeholders in the Adani Mine project. The government believes that by encouraging and supporting coal mining in the Galilee Basin, it will not only increase its revenue streams through taxation and mining royalties, but it will also enable the local communities to meet their economic needs. This perception of the mine is anchored on the realization that similar mining projects, such as the open-cut mining in the Hunter Valley, earned the Australian government approximately A$43 billion between 2011 and 2012, which accounted for close to 3.1% of the country’s overall GDP (Cottle & Keys, 2014). Additionally, the fact that coal is the Australia’s second largest mineral export is a clear indication that the government would want to increase the quantity of coal mined in the country in order to increase its revenue earnings from coal exports. The resulting growth in revenue earnings is set to increase the country’s capacity to finance development of other projects, such as infrastructure and affordable housing, and accordingly accelerate attainment of the UN’s sustainable development goals.

To integrate this stakeholder requirement into the project and demonstrate sustainability, Adani Mining Group will be required to avoid tax evasion – which it has been infamous for – and instead pay all the mining royalties and taxes to both the Australia’s national government and the Central Queensland government, as agreed (Adani Australia; 2019).  

1. Social Advancement and Wellness

The social advancement and wellness requirement pertain particularly to the local communities; namely, residents of the Central Queensland and those living around the Galilee Basin. TBL places social welfare promotion at the center of sustainable development by requiring large-scale projects to pay attention to social advancement, rather than simply focusing on meeting investors’ economic objectives (Sapukotanage, Warnakulasuriya and Yapa, 2018). What local communities, as another key stakeholder group in the Adani Mine project, want is improved living standards, neighborhoods free from environmental pollutants and illnesses, high income levels to meet their economic needs, sustainable access to clean water and other resources, and preservation of the region’s ecology and ancestral lands for their future generations (Franks, Brereton and Moran, 2010). These needs are consistent with most of the UN’s sustainable development goals that seek to eradicate poverty, protect life on land and in water, and reduce youth unemployment among other goals, by 2030.

Social advancement and welfare promotion are incorporated in the Carmichael mine project in various ways. First, the project owner estimates that the project will employ more than 1,500 Australians of which majority will be locals, and create additional 7,000 once the mine becomes fully functional. This way, it is without doubt that the project will help to improve the living standards of many Australians. Indeed, growing evidence associate coal mining activities with increased income levels among the residents of a given region. Notably, Cottle and Keys (2014) found that the income, and hence living standards of people around the Hunter Valley in New South Wales improved significantly when coal mining operations began in the region as the mine employed 11,350 people in 2011 alone. Second, by paying mining taxes and royalties to the state and national governments, the Carmichael mine project will contribute indirectly to the development of healthcare facilities, transport infrastructure, educational centers and other social amenities in Central Queensland (Adani Australia., 2019). Evidently, this will promote social welfare in the region. 

• Environmental Conservation

Environmental organizations and activists, as the last group of key stakeholders, will want the project to demonstrate commitment to environmental conversation. According to this stakeholder, the project should have the minimum environmental impact so the ability of future generations to meet their needs is not compromised (Morelli, 2011). This requirement is in line with the 11^th goal of the UN’s SDG, which seeks to encourage nations to participate in climate change mitigation efforts by coming with ways of reducing their ecological footprint.

The requirement also supports incorporation of the TBL’s third pillar – planet/environment protection – in the project (Alhaddi, 2015). Some of the key areas where the Carmichael mine project is highly contested relate to its potential to damage the Great Barrier Reef as well as disrupt the water table and aquifers of the Great Artesian Basin (Stop Adani, 2020). It is also feared that construction of the mine will disrupt ancestral lands and other forms of heritage in the region. More importantly, environmental agencies and activists dread that, once fully operational, the coal mine will emit thousands of tons of dust particles, greenhouse gases and other atmospheric pollutants that will not only exacerbate the ongoing climate change crisis, but will also expose locals to dozens of environmental illnesses (Slezak, M., 2018). This perception toward coal mining is conditioned by the impacts of existing coal mines, such as the open-cut mining in the Hunter Valley in NSW and other mines in the Bowen Basin, as Rolfe, Ivanova and Lockie (2006) established.

Project managers of the Carmichael mine are addressing this requirement by conducting a comprehensive environmental impact assessment at every stage of the project. This practice is supported by Glasson and Therivel (2013) who maintain that the essence is to identify potential environmental risks, and accordingly formulate strategic measures to minimize their impacts.          

How the Outcomes are Measured

Various tools are being used to measure outcomes of the Carmichael mine project. For the three requirements: economic prosperity, social advancement, and environmental conservation, three tools to measure their outcomes are budget estimate, corporate social responsibility (CSR) report, and environment impact statement (EIS), respectively. To begin with, budget estimate is being used to approximate the overall cost of the project as well as its economic benefits to both the investor, the government and other stakeholders. With the help of budget estimates, for example, Adani Mining Pty Ltd has determined that it will spend more than $1 billion in contracts for the construction of the coal mine and the rail project. Budget estimate also shows that the project will generate billions of dollars for the government, through taxes and mining royalties during the first 30 years of operation (Adani Australia., 2019).

Regarding EIS, Adani has prepared a statement of the environmental impact assessment activities performed between 2010 and 2015. The statement was prepared after public consultation conducted between the late 2012 and 2013, and in accordance with the requirements of the Commonwealth Australia, the federal government and the state government of Queensland. The statement’s key objective is to mitigate and possibly avoid potential negative impacts to the social, environmental and economic values, thereby enhancing positive outcomes. By preparing the EIS and CSR reports annually, Adani is positioned to demonstrate to the public and other concerned stakeholders the measures being taken to address their sustainability requirements (Franks, Brereton and Moran, 2010).         

Potential Improvements

Stakeholder needs assessment reveals various opportunity gaps in the Adani mine project, as far as meeting sustainability requirements of the local community and environmentalists is concerned. Adani mine project, like other coal mining projects, has attractive economic and social advancement prospects (Petkova, Lockie Rolfe and Ivanova, 2009). However, it is being contested on the grounds that it will contribute to air pollution, GHG emissions, loss of biodiversity, land use changes, disruption of ancestral lands, depletion of water and other vital resources, and cause environmental illnesses (Chadwick, Highton and Lindman, 2013). To reduce opposition around these perceived impacts, Adani Group should go beyond the economic dimension of the TBL and focus on incorporating the UN’s 17 SDGs in the project (Franks, Brereton and Moran, 2010). The integration should principally focus on goals one, three, six, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen (United Nations, 2020). Table 2 below shows how incorporating these eight goals in the project will improve the way Adani demonstrates sustainability across all the three domains of sustainability.

Table 2: How the UN’s SDGs in the Adani Mine Project can improve its Commitment to Sustainability

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Whether the Project is Following the Best Practice

The Adani mine project is currently in the planning phase, and is so far following the best practice. First, the project plans to transport coal to “Abbot Point Port via a 200 km rail line and existing rail infrastructure” (Adani Australia, 2019), which is the same way other coal mines in Queensland have been operating responsibly and safely for over 30 years. Second, the project has performed a formal environmental assessment, which involve public consultation to ensure approval of both the Federal and State government requirements. Moreover, Adani group, in accordance with the Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 Approval for the Carmichael Coal Mine and the Commonwealth Environment Protection, publishes all the management plans, reports and programs on its website at least one month prior to their approval. Between 2012 and 2019, for instance, the project published several reports on groundwater management, national environmental significance, biodiversity offset strategy note, offset area management plans, and the Great Artesian Basin Offset strategy (Adani Australia, 2020).

Conclusion    

Adani mine (the Carmichael coal mine) project is a highly contested coal mining project in the northern Galilee Basin in Central Queensland. The project is currently in the planning phase, and the Triple Bottom Line sustainability principle being applied to ensure sustainable outcomes. Key stakeholders in the project include Australian federal government; the Queensland government; the Adani Mining Group; communities near the Galilee Basin; and environmentalists. The requirements of these stakeholders range from economic prosperity to increased income levels, access to social welfare, community from environmental illnesses, preservation of the Black-throated Finch and the Great Barrier Reef, conservation of aquifers of the Great Artesian Basin and the water table, and climate change mitigation. The project’s performance and outcomes in these requirements will be measured using such tools as budget estimates, CSR reports and environmental impact statement. Since the project has attracted high controversy concerning its potential negative impacts to the environment, it can improve its sustainability practice by incorporating the UN’s SDGs, rather than simply focusing on meeting the project’s economic objectives.         

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·         Increased income levels to meet both the present and future needs.

·         Adequate access to social welfare facilities

·         Environment free of pollution and related environmental illnesses.

·         Preservation of the region’s heritage and ecology, including the Black-throated Finch and the Great Barrier Reef (Stop Adani, 2020).

·         Conservation of water and other natural resources, particularly aquifers of the Great Artesian Basin.

·         Protect and preserve ancestral lands and culture