The Queensland government has now approved the controversial Adani coal mine. This must not stop the crucial debate on how Australia can transition to a low-carbon economy.

The campaign against the mine, under the slogan "Stop Adani", has become a rallying cry for Australia's environmental movement that has gone far beyond the risks for local fauna and the precious local water supply on which Queensland has just issued a decision.

The mine has dominated, perhaps unduly, Australia's debate over how it can help fight global warming while being the world's biggest coal exporter.

Protesters ask for science to be the key factor in the decision to approve or reject the groundwater management plan for Adani's Carmichael mine in central Queensland. Credit:Tony Moore

The Carmichael mine's planned peak output of 60 million tonnes a year would increase Australian thermal coal exports by a quarter but it could be just the first of several huge new mines planned in the remote Galilee Basin.