The Daily Telegraph
By: Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia
Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time -- and our response must be decisive. It must also be delivered in a way that helps us build a stronger economy for the future.
That's why the Government is committed to developing cleaner solutions for Australia's current energy sources.
Eighty per cent of Australia's electricity comes from coal-fired power generation. Coal will continue to provide most of our electricity for decades while we build our renewable and gas capacity in response to climate change. Coal also fires about 40 per cent of the world's power generation and will continue to do so.
It is our biggest export and demand for our coal is insatiable at a time of unprecedented global growth led by China and India. Australia's coal resources alone, assuming the advent of successful low emissions coal technologies, could remain significant for several hundred years.
The challenge for Australia is that, as of 2005, 40 per cent of energy related CO2 emissions came from coal fired electricity generation. That's why carbon capture and storage, or CCS, is a vital part of Australia's -- and the world's -- clean energy future.
The International Energy Agency says improved energy efficiency and carbon capture and storage are the two most viable options for the world to reduce greenhouse emissions. The G8 meeting in Japan agreed there is a critical need to commit globally to 20 fully integrated, industrial scale, CCS demonstration projects by 2010 and the broad deployment of this technology by 2020.
Australia needs to be a leader in this effort. It's important for jobs. And it's important for our future economy. That is why the Government will establish and host a Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute. The Global CCS Institute will have a specific mandate to accelerate the global adoption of carbon capture and storage. Apart from the global response to the current international financial crisis, I will also raise Australia's plan for the Global CCS Institute at the UN this week.
Carbon capture and storage holds the key to environmentally sustainable economic growth. The Government is already supporting a range of carbon capture and storage projects, including the Otway Basin carbon storage demonstration project in Victoria.
The race to make carbon capture and storage a reality requires a strong partnership between governments, industry, the research community, the labour and environmental movements, and the community at large. It is time for us all to put our shoulders to the wheel.