Global warming is here. Droughts, rising tides, supercharged storms, floods and bushfires threaten Australian families and their homes. Half of the Great Barrier Reef is dead. And this is just the beginning.
In the face of all this, industry has failed to change tack and our governments have failed to show leadership. Every single day Australians are taking matters into their own hands, cutting pollution at home and demanding that big polluters take responsibility for the damage they are causing.
The campaign to prevent billionaire Adani building the biggest coal mine in Australian history and opening up the Galilee Basin to a further eight coal mines has become a groundswell movement around the country.
The Australian community knows that the mining, burning and exporting of coal is Australia’s biggest contribution to climate change and must urgently be phased out. To do this, the community knows that their first mission is to #StopAdani’s coal mine.
Polling from early 2018 showed that two-thirds of Australians oppose Adani’s coal mine going ahead, a huge 13% surge in the 10 months since the Stop Adani Alliance was launched in March 2017. 73% of Australians support a policy to halt the expansion of coal mining to reduce the threat of climate change.
The campaign has made incredible strides to #StopAdani. Together, the public has pushed some of the world’s largest banks to say no to funding the project. The Queensland community successfully pressured the Queensland government to veto the $1 billion public loan. We have seen two big joint venture partners pull out: Downer broke a $2 billion deal leaving Adani without a mine builder, and Aurizon withdrew their application for NAIF funding to build Adani’s rail line.
However, Adani won’t walk away because they have invested too much – not only in the Carmichael mine but also in the Abbot Point Port which will become a stranded asset if the mine is not built. Adani’s best chance could now be to fund the project themselves, now Adani’s wealth has grown to a staggering $10 billion.
Adani needs to be confident of ongoing political support if he is to invest billions of dollars of his own money. Adani’s mine cannot go ahead without bipartisan political support, so it is the mission of the Australian community to break it.
The Australian community is ready to push their elected representatives to make a public commitment to stop Adani’s mine. Wherever our politicians turn, they will be confronted with the dilemma: #StopAdani OR face growing community opposition and political pain that will not go away until they do. Considering what this incredible grassroots movement has achieved in just a year, with ordinary people from communities across Australia committing to take extraordinary actions to tell their local MPs to stop funding Adani, it is likely the Australian community will yet again rise to this challenge.