Australia's top court just made coal mines answer for their climate cost

The Hunter Valley community group DAMS HEG took its fight to the High Court of Australia — and won. The court ruled that approving the Mount Pleasant coal mine expansion was invalid because the minister failed to consider how the coal's burning would worsen local bushfires, drought, flooding and extreme heat — the downstream climate impacts of the mine. It's the first climate case ever decided by Australia's apex court, and it reaches straight into the 17 coal proposals now before the federal government.