Qld Govt Must Call Off Coal Propaganda Campaign

Six Degrees and Friends of the Earth Brisbane call on the Queensland government to cancel its propaganda campaign to promote the so-called "clean coal" to secondary school students.

“The Queensland government is doing the dirty work of the coal industry by funding a propaganda campaign to deceive school children about an unproven technology” said Friends of the Earth spokesperson Emma Brindal.

Minister for Mines and Energy Geoff Wilson yesterday admitted that the Queensland government’s campaign to promote so-called “clean coal” is deceptive.

“The primary coal technology claimed by the government to be “clean” is Carbon capture and storage. This technology is unproven and diverts us from implementing genuine and existing solutions to climate change” said Ms Brindal.

“Australia needs to reduce its greenhouse emissions by at least 50% by 2020 if we are to avert dangerous climate change. Carbon capture and storage will not enable us to achieve this reduction” said Ms Brindal.

“Even if proven to work on a commercial scale, geosequestration would reduce Australia’s emissions by only 7% by 2020. This is because all of Australia’s current coal-fired power plants cannot be modified to capture CO2 – only new plants can do this” said Ms Brindal.

“Money and research being put into this unproven technology does not address the source of carbon emissions and diverts funding from renewable technologies – technologies which already exist. A strong renewables industry would mean more jobs - for every unit of energy produced by conventional fossil fuels, we could create three to five more jobs than we have in coal.” said Ms Brindal.

“It is time for the Queensland government to seriously start planning to end Queensland’s dependence on the coal industry. We know that climate change impacts are happening faster than predicted, but the Queensland government is continuing to pour taxpayer’s money into expanding coal infrastructure, and promoting the coal industry” said Ms Brindal.
 

21st September 2008