Clive Palmer is seeking a review of a Queensland court's advice that the state should reject his proposed thermal coal mine due to its" unacceptable climate change impacts" on human rights and the environment.
Land Court President Fleur Kingham last month upheld an objection to Palmer-owned Waratah Coal's $6.5 billion Galilee project, west of Rockhampton, after a three-year legal battle.
It's the first time a Queensland court has advised a coal mine should be refused due to its contribution to climate change, and the first time an Australian court has linked climate change to human rights.
Waratah Coal lawyers have filed for a judicial review of the ruling, which could have major ramifications for the future of coal mining in the state, and in Australia.
The matter is set for a hearing in the Supreme Court on February 14.
The Environmental Defenders Office, on behalf of Youth Verdict and The Bimblebox Alliance, opposed the mine on human rights grounds, arguing it would exacerbate climate change and destroy a nearby nature reserve.
EDO managing lawyer Sean Ryan said it wasn't surprising Waratah Coal wanted a review of the ruling, which he said "must have sent shivers down the spine of the whole fossil fuel industry".
His clients will defend the court's decision.
"For the first time, the Land Court has rejected an argument fossil fuel companies have used for decades to minimise or deflect responsibility for the harm their products are doing to our climate," he said.
"The Land Court roundly rejected the 'substitution argument', also known as the drug dealer's defence, that if they don't dig up and sell the coal, someone else will.
"Demolition of that argument represents a significant threat not just to Waratah Coal's Galilee Coal Project, but all future fossil fuel proposals in Queensland. Essentially, the Court found that we can have a safe climate without this mine, but we can't have one with it."
Ms Kingham found that even though Waratah's coal mine was intended for exports "wherever the coal is burnt the emissions will contribute to environmental harm, including in Queensland."
"The climate scenario consistent with a viable mine risks unacceptable climate change impacts to Queensland people and property, even taking into account the economic and social benefits of the project," she said in her ruling last month.
The proposed mine's 1.58 gigatonnes of carbon emissions would also limit the human rights of Queenslanders, including the right to life, property, privacy and home, the rights of children and the cultural rights of First Nations peoples, she found.
Ms Kingham found that mining under the nearby 8000-hectare Bimblebox Nature Reserve could cause subsidence which would leave the refuge "seriously and possibly irreversibly damaged".
The ruling is a recommendation to the minister and the department, who will make the final decisions about Waratah's mining lease and environmental authority.
