23 February An Update From Across The Globe February 23, 2024 By ER Law Admin Environment, International, Mining, Oil and Gas, Resources and Energy 0 As lawmakers settle into 2024, we’re now seeing progress on policy and legislation in jurisdictions across the globe. An update from across the globe As lawmakers settle into 2024, we’re now seeing progress on policy and legislation in jurisdictions across the globe. India The Ministry of Mines has announced it will amend the mineral law framework as it relates to exploration licences. The licences are a new concept introduced in 2023 to encourage exploration of certain minerals including lithium, gold, cobalt and nickel. The framework enables the licensee to earn a proportion of the revenue earned by the state government when it auctions the grant of mining leases resulting from the operations of the exploration licensee. It is expected that this regime will not only encourage the transition to clean energy but also bring more foreign investment into the sector. USA The US has been making moves to assess the impact of certain policies on the environment in the lead up to the Presidential election later in the year. This has included pausing approvals for pending and future applications to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from new projects. While this falls short of banning LNG projects, it does provide the Department of Energy time to assess the economic and environmental impact of some projects. In 2023, the US was the largest exporter of LNG in the world so this decision is likely to have an impact on markets globally. There has also been some scuffling between the GOP and the Biden administration on electric vehicle incentives and other aspects of energy and climate policy as they both seek to assert their power in the lead up to the election. Europe The Norwegian Parliament introduced a resource rent tax on onshore wind power on 1 January 2024. The resource tax rate is 25% which is lower than hydropower (45%) and petroleum (56%). The rent tax will be calculated on cash flow instead of profit and the tax value of negative resource rent can be carried forward and paid out after the wind farm begins operations. There are some transitional arrangements in place for existing wind farms. Malaysia Malaysia has committed to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and 70% installed renewable energy capacity by 2050. To ensure it meets its objectives, the Government recently announced that it will open bids for its 5th Large Scale Solar Programme, its first in three years. The Large Scale Solar Programme involves competitive bidding to bring down the Levelled Cost of Energy for the development of large scale solar photovoltaic plants. The Energy Commission is expected to issue a request for proposal documents in April 2024 but it is not yet known if foreign companies will be able to bid. The Malaysian Government has also announced other initiatives to increase installed renewable energy. These include a Low Carbon Energy Generation Programme of up to 400 MW that will encourage some low-carbon power generation sources including small hydro, biogas, biomass and hydrogen. They have also announced an additional quota of 400 MW under its Net Energy Metering programme. This programme allows energy produced from solar photovoltaic installation to be given consumption priority, with any excess exported to Tenaga National Berhad (the Malaysian multinational electricity company). Related Articles Submission - DISER Consultation Paper December 2020 ‘Enhancing Australia’s decommissioning framework for offshore oil and gas activities’ Navigating the Future: Updates from the US, Japan, and New Zealand As the global energy landscape undergoes rapid transformation, nations around the world continue to redefine their strategies to address climate change, energy security, and economic sustainability. In this article, we delve into the latest updates from three diverse countries: the United States, Japan, and New Zealand. Recent regulatory updates across Australia This article provides an overview of developments in the industry over the past couple of months that have occurred in several states across Australia. Recent updates from Malaysia and Southeast Asia Acknowledging the need in its country, the Government of Malaysia has recently introduced several new programs that aim to improve low carbon and renewable energy generation in the country. FORREST AND FORREST PTY LTD AND MINISTER FOR ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS [2023] WASAT 28 Western Australia’s State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) has rejected a review, by Forrest & Forrest Pty Ltd, against the refusal of consent to impact an Aboriginal site in constructing weirs across the Ashburton River. A unanimous three-member panel published its decision in April 2023. SAT’s decision and reasoning has direct significance and use for anyone involved in processes for a s 18 consent under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 and broader relevance for the law around protection of Aboriginal heritage in Western Australia. With the WA Government announcing the reversal of recent statutory changes and a return to the 1972 legislation, SAT’s decision has increased relevance. COMMUNITY LEGAL RIGHTS IN MINE CLOSURE PLANNING; A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THREE AUSTRALIAN STATES Professor Alex Gardner, University of Western Australia Law School, and Laura Hamblin, formerly research associate at the UWA Law School, 2021 Why does the Mining Act 1978 (WA) not provide secure legal rights for community consultation in relation to mining lease proposals and mine closure plans? Addressing this question presents an important theme for this comparative review of some core features of the regulatory frameworks for mine closure in three Australian States. It also raises important questions for future legal research. Western Australia, Queensland and Victoria have prominent but vastly different, and thus uniquely significant, mining industries. Western Australia’s mining industry has a long history of large and smaller scale mining of a diverse range of minerals by various methods that pose significant mine rehabilitation challenges.[i] Queensland’s mining industry is similarly large and diverse, dominated by export coal production, and planning future minerals development in a decarbonising world.[ii] Victoria has a smaller mining industry with a large historical legacy dominated by a coal mining industry for domestic electricity generation in the Latrobe Valley, which is closing as the State actively transitions to renewable power sources.[iii] These States also have significant differences in the regulation of their mining industries. What all three States do have in common is the significance of their mining industries to both the State economy and the communities who depend on or live near mining operations. Importantly, all three States are confronting large legal and regulatory challenges in managing mine rehabilitation and closure. The key to addressing these challenges is effective mine closure planning: the closure of a mine site has ripple effects that are not merely environmental and economic, but social and cultural too. The initial approval of a mine closure plan occurs before any mining has begun and, with the life cycle of a mine often spanning decades, regulatory bodies are approving hypothetical closure scenarios, potentially subject to vast changes. Regulatory bodies may then seek to enforce closure requirements enshrined in a plan that may wane in relevance as mining operations progress, the updating of which may depend on the miner. Yet remedying the regulatory system so that it creates adaptable but consistently effective mine closure outcomes for affected communities still begins at planning. Although that planning is an iterative process across the life of the mine, it is very important at the initial stage of approval. Recent legislative reforms in all three States are adding to the regulatory rigour and adaptability of mine closure planning, though there are very different legal requirements for community consultation. This article aims to explain and assess the regulatory reforms by undertaking a comparative analysis of mine closure planning across Western Australia, Queensland and Victoria, with a focus on the initial approval stage and how stakeholders and communities are brought into that process. The facilitation of continuous and comprehensive community engagement is critical to ensuring that mine closure planning accounts for environmental, economic, social, cultural and safety outcomes after mine closure, but it has not been possible to consider here the process of ongoing mine closure planning, especially for amending mine closure plans and determining satisfaction of mine closure plans leading to resource tenure relinquishment.[iv] The article begins by considering core concepts of mine closure planning and the regulatory goals that inform it. It then provides a comparative overview of each State’s mine closure planning requirements under the mineral resources, environmental and land use planning laws and draws out some of the different regulatory structures and processes for mine closure within each State. The third step in our analysis compares the ways in which those laws provide for local communities’ participation in mine closure planning, with specific attention to whether the regulatory provisions create legally enforceable rights for effective community engagement. The article concludes with a summary of the key points from the discussion of three themes in our analysis: (i) the importance of clear definitions of core concepts and key goals, (ii) mine closure planning as an essential part of a mining proposal, and (iii) the legal definition of community engagement and consultation rights. Mine closure planning and implementation is necessarily influenced by many other spheres of law including taxation law, investment law, water law, and the rights of traditional owners, to name a few. A potentially directly relevant Commonwealth law is the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth), which may require environmental impact assessment of a mining proposal and closure plan and lead to approval conditions supplementing State requirements.[v] Whilst acknowledging the importance of these adjacent spheres of the regulatory frameworks for effective mine closure planning, this article does not attempt to address their impact. In particular, the rights of Traditional Custodians are a crucial part of mine closure planning that are only briefly noted here and that would benefit from future research. WA Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety, Major Commodities Review 2022-23”. Qld Government, Department of Resources, Queensland Resources Industry Development Plan, June 022. Vic Government, Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions, Latrobe Valley Regional Rehabilitation Strategy. See L Hamblin, A Gardner, Y Haigh, Mapping the Regulatory Framework of Mine Closure, May 2022, CRC TiME, for a broader exploration of the full life cycle of mine closure regulation. In Buzzacott v Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities [2013] FCAFC 111; (2013) 214 FCR 301, [144], [227]-[230], referring to the range of approval conditions, which included mine closure. In setting conditions under the EPBC Act, the Commonwealth Minister must consider any relevant conditions under State or Territory law: at [80] citing Lansen v Minister for Environment and Heritage (2008) 174 FCR 14. Showing 0 Comment Comments are closed.