Australia To Establish Global Clean Coal Institute
BERNAMA, September 19, 2008 17:46 PM
MELBOURNE, Sept 19 (Bernama) -- Australia will spend A$100 million to establish a global clean coal institute, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced today.
The Institute For Carbon Capture And Storage will be the centrepiece of Rudds' speech to the United Nations general assembly in New York next week.
The government will also provide up to A$100 million annually for the running of the institute.
"Australia is the world's largest coal exporting country. Therefore, Australia must provide global leadership on carbon capture and storage," Rudd said at a presentation to resource and energy industry leaders in Canberra.
"Rather than simply put an idea out there, we have decided to provide up to A$100 million a year," he added.
He said not all players in the energy industry were pulling their weight in funding low-emission technology.
"The truth is some are and others are not. I think what they would all recognise from our discussions is that, they need to do more,'' he pointed out.
The institute would have the objective of helping meet a G8 commitment to have at least 20 industrial-scale carbon capture and storage projects in operation by 2020.
The technology involves capturing carbon dioxide emitted by a coal or gas fired facility and storing it underground.
He said the technology had the potential to capture nine billion tonnes of carbon by 2050.
That represented about 20 per cent of the total reduction needed to cap atmospheric levels at 450 parts per million, considered the threshold for dangerous climate change.
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