The Importance of Communicating the Science in the Development of Major Resource Projects

摘要

Establishing a major resource project is challenging. Over and above the technical challenges, commerciality, global competitiveness and resource uncertainty, are; project timing, resources dedicated to environmental permitting, and developing and maintaining a social license. Costs of environmental compliance due to high levels of environmental conditioning can be a challenge, especially if driven by a lack of understanding of the genuine potential impacts arising from the project. Accurate and effective communication across the range of issues potentially sensitive to the broad array of project stakeholders is an important way to build and maintain social license. The opponents of major resource projects are many and varied and with many different reasons and motivations to oppose any project. Views within those groups and the broader public can often be formed on the basis of limited and biased information, which is circulated more and more broadly. This paper presents a discussion of the value and methods of science communication to resource projects of clear and uncensored communication of the science supporting the project, with examples from the recent CSG development boom in Queensland. The communication should be targeted; varied in approach and content; to all stakeholders according to their needs, and above all, honest.