New coal-fired power station is not 'clean coal': WWF
10 Jul 2007
The Queensland Government's climate strategy will be rendered useless by the proposed new coal-fired power station which the Premier has wrongly suggested is "clean coal", WWF-Australia announced today.
The premier's statement is incorrect as the technology needed to achieve low emissions by storing the carbon will not be operational on the power station until at least 2020.
WWF's announcement comes as the conservation organisation made a submission to the Queensland Government's Climate Smart 2050 strategy feedback process.
The submission reveals that, at a time when it is accepted globally that emissions must fall, Queensland's emissions will continue to rise.
The submission uses Queensland's newest and most efficient 750 MW coal-fired power station, Kogan Creek, as an example of how one coal-fired power station impacts on greenhouse gas savings to date.
"Kogan Creek will, from September, wipe out the emission savings and the millions of dollars the Queensland government has already spent on greenhouse gas reduction projects since 2000," said WWF-Australia's Climate Change Policy Manager, Kellie Caught.
- After one day's operation, the Kogan Creek plant will eliminate greenhouse gas savings from the Queensland Solar Schools Program.
- After three days, it will eliminate gas savings from the Government ecoBiz program.
- After eight days it will eliminate the greenhouse gas savings from the Townsville Solar Cities program and after 93 days it will wipe the greenhouse gas savings from the 13 per cent Gas Scheme.
"What's even more frightening is that within four years of operation, Kogan Creek will eliminate the 20,000,000 tonnes of carbon savings from Queensland's recent land clearing ban," Ms Caught said.
"The Government's coal proposal is not 'clean coal' if it's not low emissions. It becomes part of the problem and not part of the solution," Ms Caught said.
"It is irresponsible and unnecessary for Queensland to even consider commissioning power stations without carbon storage (CCS) technology, especially when it is clear that future growth in energy demand can be met via gas and renewable energy sources and greater energy efficiency measures."
Queensland like the rest of the world, should be aiming to stabilise and begin to reduce emissions by 2010, and then reduce them 20 per cent - 30 per cent by 2020.
"If action is delayed, as proposed by Climate Smart 2050, the emission reduction effort is made twice as hard and costly, with a very low chance of avoiding the worst impacts of climate change."
"This climate strategy does not represent the contribution to tackling dangerous climate change that WWF would expect of wealthy State with a high standard of living - Queenslanders should be outraged," Ms Caught said.
For more information, or a copy of WWF's submission to the Queensland Climate Strategy Process, please contact:
Charlie Stevens, Press Officer, WWF-Australia
Phone: 02 8202 1274
Mobile: 0424 649 689
Email: cstevens@wwf.org.au
Kellie Caught, Climate Change Policy Manager, WWF-Australia
Phone: 07 3211 2684
Mobile: 0406 383 277
