Go Away BMA: Pacific Climate Warriors take on coal expansion in Australia’s Bowen Basin
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
22 October 2026
Photos will be available here
Australia – 350.org Pacific Climate Warriors have launched a campaign against BHP and Mitsubishi Alliance’s (BMA) coal operations in Australia’s Bowen Basin. In a series of actions across the country, Pacific climate advocates have called on BMA to reconsider the expansion proposals of Saraji, Peak Downs and other mammoth coal projects in Queensland.
350.org Pacific Climate Warriors also joined BHP’s AGM this morning in Sydney, posing questions to the Chair and CEO regarding the impact of its mines’ emissions on climate-vulnerable communities in the Pacific, and the reputational risk of pursuing coal expansion applications at a time when decarbonisation is critical for protecting the 1.5 degree target.
Jacynta Fa’amau, 350.org Pacific Campaigner said:
“BHP continues to pursue proposals to extend and expand a dying coal industry at the expense of our futures. We joined BHP’s AGM today and told the Board how the emissions from their operations will devastate generations of Pacific people, if they continued to extract and export coal. Saraji East mine is actively moving through the approval process and Peak Downs, while “cancelled” at the state level, is pursuing alternative approval pathways. These are the facts and BHP cannot ignore that its operations are currently not aligned with any future that keeps us safe from climate catastrophe in both Australia and the Pacific.”
The Australian government is also due to decide on the BHP’s Saraji East coal mine today, which would release over 330million tonnes of climate pollution, digging coal out to the year 2045. Pacific climate advocates have previously called on Australia to reject these applications.
Lyric Thomas-Pera, Pacific Climate Warrior said:
“It is dangerously irresponsible of both the Albanese Government and BMA to push through approvals for a mega-mine like Saraji East. Across the country, Pacific Islanders are rallying behind the call to end BMA’s coal operations in the Bowen Basin and protect generations of Pacific lives and culture from a runaway climate crisis. We are calling on the BHP & Mitsubishi Alliance to cancel proposals they are currently pursuing, and on the federal government to live up to the promises of climate leadership they made at PreCOP in Fiji.”
Australia recently led the Pre COP31 meeting in Fiji and will head to Antalya, Turkiye as COP31 Head of Negotiations. Pacific leaders have called out the misalignment of Australia’s role and their continued coal and gas expansion.
Fenton Lutunatabua, 350.org Pacific and Caribbean Program Manager said:
“Accountability did not end when Australia left Pre-COP in Fiji. Pacific people have been clear that the way Australia must show leadership at COP31 is to lead with their own national roadmap to phase out fossil fuels, including exports. Otherwise it is all rhetoric, while Australia coal and gas expansion fuels our destruction. Today, we told BHP that, at a corporate level, their continued coal extraction also holds responsibility for decades of damage in the Pacific, and we will fight their expansion plans every step of the way. The only hope of survival for our people is a world beyond climate-destroying fossil fuels.”
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