Adani’s Australian coal prospects in doubt

Sydney : An Australian court’s decision last week to overturn approval for a giant coal mine in Queensland is the latest stumbling block for Indian company Adani’s multibillion-dollar venture.Long before the Federal Court of Australia overturned government approval for the Carmichael coal project, international banks had steered clear of investing in the project.
Policy confusion around climate change, a falling coal price and the environmental hurdles mining companies have to leap in Australia before a project can be approved have all been cited as reasons for Adani’s struggle to get financial backing.
In April, French financier Credit Agricole said its lack of interest in the project was because of “the number and magnitude of issues linked to the planned coal development projects” in Queensland’s Galilee Basin.
Unprecedented scale
Thursday’s announcement by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) that it was no longer providing financial advice to Adani on the project strengthened doubts about the financial viability of what would have been one of the world’s biggest coal mines.The project is now “dead in the water,” says Tim Buckley, director of energy finance studies at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.”Not just because of the overturned approval, but because of a lack of finance, and a structural decline in the resources market,” Mr Buckley told the BBC.