Summary: The Australian government has recently approved Adani’s Carmichael coal project. If built, it would be the biggest coal mine in Australia. This briefing note puts the vast scale of Carmichael into context.

The mine pits themselves would be 40km long and 10km wide, bigger than many capital cities. At peak capacity the mine would output 60 million tonnes of thermal coal per year. Adani expects Carmichael will output 2.3 billion tonnes of coal over its lifetime: enough to build a road one-metre thick, ten-metres wide, wrapped around the world five times.

Adani anticipates the mine – its operation and its coal -- to produce 4.7 billion tonnes of CO2-equivalent over its lifetime. This is more than 0.5% of the world carbon budget for limiting warming to 2 degrees Celsius.

Carmichael’s average annual emissions of 79 million tonnes of carbon equivalent, or CO2-e, are comparable to annual emissions from many countries, including:

• Sri Lanka (57 MT CO2-e);
• Malaysia (75 MT CO2-e);
• Austria (76 MT CO2-e);
• Vietnam (104 MT CO2-e);

The carbon emissions of Carmichael’s coal mine operation and production will surpass or match the annual emissions of many major cities, including:

• Three times the average annual emissions of New Delhi;
• Six times the average annual emissions of Amsterdam;
• Double the average annual emissions of Tokyo;
• 20 per cent more than the average annual emissions of New York City;
• Nearly half the average annual emissions of Beijing, a city with a population rivalling Australia.

In addition, if the Carmichael project proceeds, its output of carbon-equivalent will neutralise many of the gains made through the effort of the international community to prevent dangerous global warming. Specifically, the increase in greenhouse gas emissions from the operating of Carmichael and the burning of its coal product will:

• Entirely offset Australia’s carbon reduction goals;
• Offset four-fifths of Canada’s carbon reduction goals; and
• Offset half of Japan’s carbon reduction goals.

As the international community prepares for the Paris talks, the world’s climate change abatement efforts rely on leaving the bulk of coal resources in the ground. To do otherwise risks locking in long-term emissions.