The Iemma government should leave speculative experiments with new coal technologies to the mining companies and concentrate on renewable energy and efficiency gains to meet NSW’s electricity needs.

Creating very low or no emissions coal-fired generating technologies will be very difficult if not impossible. Putting scarce public research and development funds into this high risk research would squander money on boosting the already swollen profits of the coal corporations.

A recent Greenpeace International report, tracking all peer-reviewed studies of 'clean coal technologies', found that it remains a false hope peddled by coal industry PR merchants and some governments who are in their back pockets (eg. New South Wales).

They found that even its proponents admit it will not be ready and viable on a commercial scale before 2030 (if ever) - far too late to avert climate change. It also wastes energy, will remain very expensive compared to existing renewable technologies, and carry significant liability risks that private corporations would not be able to cover, leaving taxpayers to carry the burden. Read the full report here.

The Iemma government should be backing the low carbon technologies that have already proven track records. These include wind, solar thermal, crop wastes and energy efficiency.

They should also be putting research funding into technologies that show promise but do not already have backers with deep pockets. These include geothermal hot rocks and solar photovoltaics.

Public money should not be squandered on technologies that have a high probability of never working and already have very wealthy commercial supporters.

If the coal companies are worried about the future of their product, they should invest their own money in experiments with carbon capture and storage. The coal industry’s existing commitment is tiny. They are spending less than 0.3% of the money they make on selling each tonne of coal mined in NSW on clean coal experiments.

For more information

• Read John's speech in NSW parliament on 'the myth of clean coal'
  
• Watch NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon's YouTube video, 'Clean Coal is a Con'
• View the 7:30 Report feature on how CCS is failing to meet expectations (7 April 2008)
• Read the Greenpeace report False Hope: why carbon capture and storage won’t save the climate (summary below)

Media

• Read John's media releases on clean coal