Australia Coal Port Prepares for Climate Change

An Australian consortium is spending hundreds of millions to build the world's largest coal shipping port. And apparently, it's building the facility to withstand sea level rises due to global warming, reports The Sydney Morning Herald:

A new coal port that will cement Newcastle's place as the largest coal exporter in the world is quietly being built up by several metres, apparently in preparation for the rising sea levels brought about by climate change.

The new coal loader is being constructed on a low-lying island on the Hunter River, fringed with tidal mangrove swamps, in an area vulnerable to higher seas, storm surges and coastal erosion.

...the Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group, the collection of six mining companies funding the $900 million new port, has refused to say whether rising sea levels figured in its plans. A spokesman for the group said parts of the site were two to three metres above sea level and the area was being further buttressed by 3 million cubic metres of sediment dredged up from the south arm of the Hunter River.

...But the company remains coy about whether the site had been built up because of climate change concerns. It is a sensitive question because the coal exported from the port would make a measurable contribution to climate change.

It is set to handle up to 66 million tonnes of coal each year, which the NSW Department of Planning estimates would release 174 million tonnes of greenhouse gas when burnt in overseas power stations. This would raise the world's carbon dioxide emissions by 0.5 per cent, the equivalent of boosting Australia's entire domestic carbon emissions by a third.