Australia: New coal plant won’t harm targets

NSW can build a coal-fired power station without busting its short-term greenhouse gas emission targets, says the Minister for Climate Change and the Environment, Phil Koperberg.

Mr Koperberg was optimistic that technology that captured carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants and buried it would be available before 2025. He was also confident that renewable energy would represent a larger percentage of the state’s energy consumption.

“On current trends we are going to meet those targets,” said Mr Koperberg.

This would still be the case even with a new coal-fired power station, he added.

“We, as I said, have a number of projects to produce cleaner coal technology and with the advent of the investment in renewables, there is no reason which is evident to us at the moment that those targets will not be met.”

A Government inquiry into the state’s electricity needs will report at the end of August. State electricity generators Macquarie Generation and Delta Electricity have proposed building a coal-fired power station.

Sydney Morning Herald