The Australia Coal Association (ACA), the Construction Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, the Climate Institute and WWF Australia last week called on the Federal Government to establish a taskforce to examine CCS technology.
APIA chief executive Cheryl Cartwright said her organisation supported this push. But she warned that such a taskforce must consult all affected industry sectors and the government's input should be restricted to research and development, particularly with reference to transportation of CO2, and not expand into infrastructure investment.
"Further work needs to be undertaken on the development of CCS technology, and it's quite possible that such technology could be extended to the capture of CO2 emissions from gas-fired power generation," she said.
But the amount of environmental benefit that CCS provides for gas-fired power generation would depend upon the price of emissions, given that emissions from gas-fired power generation are far lower than emissions from coal-fired power generation, according to Cartwright.
"As well as looking at capture and storage, such a taskforce should also examine research and development of the transportation of CO2 gases as this provides new challenges for the pipeline industry," she said.
"While the industry is already examining the technical challenges of transporting CO2, a stronger focus through a government taskforce would help to ensure that the transportation system will be available when it is required."
She added that any government assistance should be restricted to the research and development challenges of climate change as well as compensation for disadvantages that industry will face with the introduction of a renewable energy target and an emissions trading scheme.
"With appropriate support of R&D, the Government does not need to be involved in the infrastructure investment or other commercial aspects of power generation or the transportation and storage of CO2 emissions," Cartwright said.
"The private sector stands ready to make such investment when the Government provides the appropriate policy and economic signals."
