More than 50 Australian faith leaders, including some prominent Christians, have signed a joint letter asking Adani chairman Gautam Adani to abandon his proposed new coal mine in North Queensland and invest the money in solar energy instead.
Protestors at the Adani HQ. PICTURE: Courtesy of ARRCC
The letter, which was organised under the auspices of the multi-faith Australian Religious Response to Climate Change, expresses the opposition of the signatories, including Christian ministers and nuns, rabbis, ordained Buddhists, and imams, to “all new coal development in the Galilee Basin”, not just the one mine.
“We are at a crossroads,” it says. “One way lies destruction; the other way, sanity. We need to turn immediately in the direction of a stable and compassionate future based on ambitious investment in renewable energy.”
The letter adds: “Our love and concern for the wellbeing of people, other forms of life and our planet leaves us convinced that building this mine would be a giant leap in a very dangerous direction…Protecting our common home and all those who live here is an essential part of each of our faiths.”
The letter – the signatories of which include Bishop Phillip Huggins, president of the National Council of Churches in Australia, Rev Dr Peter Catt, Dean of Brisbane’s Anglican Cathedral, and Dr Rateb Jneid, president of Muslims Australlia – was handed to a representative of Mr Adani outside his organisation’s headquarters in Townsville on Wednesday.
Adani has argued that the $16.5 billion Carmichael coal mine would bring thousands of new jobs to struggling regional areas in Queensland – figures which have disputed by the mine’s critics.
