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Speaking at the Queensland Energy Summit in Brisbane, Queensland Resources Council chief executive Michael Roche said Australia would play a leadership role in seeking to ensure increasing global demand for electricity is met by a range of environmentally effective supply options.
"It is impossible not to reach the conclusion that the relatively small Australian economy is punching well above its weight with a funding commitment comparable with that announced by President Bush in his State of the Union address," Roche said.
The Australian coal industry, Federal Government and state governments are committing more than $2 billion to the demonstration of carbon capture and storage projects from Bass Strait to Central Queensland.
To date, the Bush administration has announced $US2 billion ($2.3 billion) for CCS projects in the US.
Roche said the release of the interim report of the Garnaut Climate Change Review had also served to strengthen international focus on Australian innovation.
Garnaut's prediction of "strong expansion and prosperity" arising from the successful commercialisation of carbon capture and storage technologies was recognised by the black coal industry's creation of the voluntary COAL21 Fund in 2006.
"It is in Australia's national interest that the $1 billion commitment from the COAL21 Fund is successful in demonstrating low-emission technologies," Roche told delegates.
"Professor Garnaut also makes a strong case for the public funding of the research and development needed to achieve the eventual goal of zero emissions from commercially viable fossil fuel power generation."
Roche reiterated QRC's view that the efficient long-term storage of carbon stripped from the combustion process in both coal and gas in power stations was a national priority demanding a national approach.
"Carbon capture and storage is not a silver bullet but it does have an important role to play as part of a broad portfolio of low-emission fuels that will all be needed to service the growing global hunger for electricity," he said.
