The Australian government approved Adani’s controversial $16bn Carmichael coalmine in Queensland because it was not a “neo-colonialist”power that tried to tell poor countries what to do, environment minister Greg Hunt has told a side event at the Paris climate summit.



Hunt was speaking about the coalition’s Direct Action policy at an OECD event on different climate policies when he was challenged by a questioner about why the government had approved the Adani mine given the huge quantity of emissions its coal would create.

“This is not an Australian government project, it is a private sector firm from India and ... I thought we were over neocolonial moment where the wealthy decide what happens to the poor,” Hunt countered.

“I hope you would agree the poorest countries should be able to decide their own energy future. I am not a neo-colonialist. I think the poorest should be able to make their own decisions,” he said.

And he said the federal environment law allowed him to judge projects according to strict criteria, but greenhouse emissions weren’t one of them.

“It is not our project, there is no federal money, the federal government of Australia acts as a judge not as an advocate and I think it is very important that individual countries set their targets and make their own decisions,” he said.

Conservation groups have asked the federal court to overturn the Hunt’s approval Carmichael because he did not take into account the impact on the Great Barrier Reef of the greenhouse gases emitted when the coal is burned.

A recent report designed to highlight the quantity of emissions that would be created by the coal from the mine found that it would create annual emissions similar to those from countries like Malaysia and Austria and more emissions than New York City.

Others on the panel, including the head of the renewable energy division of the International Energy Agency, Paolo Frankl, said “reverse auctions” like Australia’s Direct Action scheme were proving very efficient around the world, especially in financing renewable energy projects. (Australia’s scheme has not been used for this purpose, but has mainly financed land use, waste and energy efficiency projects.) But he said a carbon price was usually also needed to drive a long term price signal.

Asked if reverse auctions could be used on their own to give business the long term price signals, Frankl said “it can but it would not be very useful. If you look at Brazil and Australia that is exactly what they are doing now, but in addition to that there should be a carbon price which could give an additional signal ... we need some long term price signal but also some short term signals.”

Hunt is leading Australia’s delegation in the first week of the two-week Paris climate summit which aims to reach an agreement to progressively increase the ambition of global efforts to reduce greenhouse gases out to 2030.

The foreign minister, Julie Bishop, will take over the negotiating lead next weekend. The talks began in earnest on Tuesday after a day of speeches by 150 world leaders designed to give them purpose and momentum.

Over the two weeks delegates will seek to overcome deep divisions over issues including whether rich and poor countries must face the same rules for reporting and checking their emission reductions and the amount of financing developed countries will provide to help poor nations reduce their emissions and deal with the impact of climate change.