Australia: calls for Adelaide Brighton Cement licence review

Adelaide Brighton's Birkenhead cement plant is coming under pressure for tighter regulation on its environmental performance. Greens leader, Mark Parnell, says data provided by Adelaide Brighton to the National Pollutant Inventory shows big rises in emissions of oxides and dust.  Mr Parnell said its emissions of sulphur dioxide alone have nearly trebled since 2009-10, according to a report on ABC News.

This has prompted calls for the cement company to have its licence reviewed before it expires in 2017. Mr Parnell says the plant has been issued a 10-year licence by the Environment Protection Authority but should be reviewed sooner if the pollution levels keep rising.

"The figures that have come out from the Commonwealth Government are figures that were provided by Adelaide Brighton Cement. It's their own estimate of how much pollution they're causing and those are the figures that have been going up for the last four years," he said. "So when it comes to pollution overall, yes, there's more than one culprit but this is one company that we know is polluting and we know the pollution is getting worse."

Adelaide Brighton Cement says its environmental management standards are internationally certified and it strives to control its environmental impact.