Michael McLaren has warned that the Mt Pleasant Coal Mine ruling could lead to more attempts by activists to stymie other coal mine expansions.

With more than 3600 cases before courts across the world, McLaren says activists could misinterpret how the findings could be applied.

“It’s lawfare in the form of activists using every nook and cranny of poorly-worded and unnecessarily burdensome legislation to get their way on a technicality,” he said.

“If we want to encourage practical ways to lower global emissions … we’d be wise to export as much Australian coal as possible into the global market, displacing less efficient alternatives from Indonesia and elsewhere,” he added.

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