This is nothing short of an empty promise for which Hume Coal simply has no capacity to give any practical effect and which wilfully ignores the simple fact that burning any coal is harmful to the global environment.

Is it really Hume Coal's suggestion that its Korean parent company, POSCO, will give a contractual guarantee that over the 20-or-so year life of the mine that not one piece of coal will be used for anything other than steel products directly related to renewable energy?

If it weren't so serious an issue then it would be laughable.

Indeed, the absurd claim made by Hume Coal flies in the face of the real threat posed by the extraction and burning of coal removed from what will be the first large scale coal mining operation ever approved in the Southern Highlands.

The Climate Council has warned that if global warming is to be contained within a two degree increase, then more than 90 per cent of Australia's existing coal reserves must remain underground. That starts with Berrima.

If Hume Coal is interested in commitment then it should look no further than the tens of thousands of people who are standing up against this proposal through petitions, letters, community meetings, phone calls to elected representatives and many other avenues.

The Southern Highlands community and our villages are united with a single aim: to ensure that the reserves Hume Coal wishes to extract and burn, remain firmly and safely underground so that they cannot contribute to the further degradation of the global environment for our generation and those to come.

David Prior, Berrima.