Flannery: Australians would soon not accept coal power plants

January 31, 2007 11:00pm
From Courier Mail (QLD, Australia).



COAL-fired power stations could be threatened by public acceptance of the need to fight global warming, Australian of the Year Tim Flannery said yesterday.

The leading scientist and author said Australians would soon not accept the power plants because of their high greenhouse gas emissions.

But the new federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull accused Professor Flannery of being "naive".

Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane also rejected the claim, saying the coal industry was working hard to clean up its act.

"We have got to remember that Australia relies for 80 per cent of its electricity from coal and that the coal industry is moving forward with the Government," Mr Macfarlane said.

The coal debate came in the lead-up to the release of a major new report into climate change in Paris on Friday.

The last major international study into global warming, the British Stern Report, was seized upon by the Federal Opposition to attack the Government.

Opposition Environment spokesman Peter Garrett yesterday called on John Howard to take urgent action.

"It is clearly time for the Prime Minister to act. It is clearly time for a national plan for greenhouse gas emissions as a matter of urgency," he said.

Professor Flannery, who embarrassed the Government over its climate change policy when he was named Australian of the Year, yesterday took aim at the coal industry.

He said the industry faced an uncertain future and needed to start spending more on alternative clean coal technology.

"You just look at public sentiment on climate change you can see that is a threat to the social licence to operate for coal," he told ABC radio.

"I say the process is going to become increasingly strained and difficult."

Professor Flannery's warning about the coal industry was partly backed up by a leading industry group that said existing power plants would need to be "retro-fitted" with expensive new technology to cut emissions.

The chief of the Electricity Supply Association of Australia, Brad Page, said if that did not happen then many of the current coal-fired power stations could be "stranded".

Read the article.