The former Greens leader Bob Brown will launch a new alliance of 13 environmental groups opposed to Adani’s Carmichael coalmine on Wednesday in Canberra.

The Stop Adani Alliance will lobby against the coalmine in northern Queensland, citing new polling that shows three-quarters of Australians oppose subsidies for the mine when told the government plans to loan its owners $1bn.

The alliance’s declaration argues the mine will “fuel catastrophic climate change” because burning 2.3bn tonnes of coal from the mine over 60 years of operation would create 4.6bn tonnes of carbon dioxide. It states the project would “trash Indigenous rights”, citing the fact Adani does not have the consent of the Wangan and Jagalingou people.

The alliance’s members include the Bob Brown Foundation, the Australian Conservation Foundation, 350.org, Get Up, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, the Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network and the Australian Marine Conservation Society.

The alliance will call for:



Urgent and serious action to cut carbon pollution;

A complete withdrawal of the Adani Carmichael mine, rail and port project;

A ban on new coalmines and expansions in Australia; and

An end to public subsidies for polluting projects.



Brown said the groups were “drawing a line in the sand with Adani, just as previous generations did with the Franklin River dam”, a campaign of which he was a leader.

“Adani’s coalmine will be the most dangerous in our history, ramping up global carbon pollution precisely when emissions need to be drastically cut,” he said.

Brown will be joined at the launch in Canberra by alliance spokesman and president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Geoff Cousins, and Seed Indigenous Youth Climate Network codirector Amelia Telford.

According to a new ReachTel poll taken on 14 March, 74.8% of voters agree that “Adani should fund its own project” rather than rely on a proposed $1bn loan from the federal government.



The poll replicates results in January that showed three-quarters of respondents were opposed to loaning $1bn for a train line to the Adani coalmine.

The government’s Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund granted Adani “conditional approval” for a $1bn loan in December 2016.

The March poll of 2,134 voters found that 64.1% of respondents thought the government should wait for consent of Aboriginal traditional owners if they opposed the Adani coalmine.

“Australians don’t want this dangerous coalmine,” Cousins said. “It’s clear from new polling that the community are with us – they know coal is a dirty, dying industry.

“The government and the Labor party must categorically rule out any public funding for the mine.”

The federal government has argued there is no definite link between the coal from the Adani mine being burned and climate change and the resources minister, Matt Canavan, has said the mine would “be a good thing for the environment”.

Analysis from Greenpeace Australia Pacific has suggested the rail project does not meet the requirements for a loan under the infrastructure scheme, since it will not be “of public benefit” and it is not clear Adani will be able to repay the loan.