Future black for coal: Renewable energy call

Illawarra Mercury
Thursday 1/11/2007 Page: 4

INTERNATIONAL business and energy expert Ian Dunlop has added his voice to the chorus calling for the coal industry to be phased out, describing it as "more dangerous than nuclear energy". Mr Dunlop last night presented his seminar "Climate Change, Peak Oil and Sustainability - key drivers for the 21st century" at Wollongong's Futureworld. Mr Dunlop's work in the oil, gas and coal industries and in long-term energy planning has fostered a specific focus on the interaction between sustainability and corporate governance.

"We are certainly facing a fundamental change in the way society is going to operate," Mr Dunlop said. "The world's population can't move from 6 billion to 9 billion if current levels of consumption remain intact." He said the coal industry's future would depend on how quickly it could clean up its act through carbon-trapping technology. "The world is not going to want coal unless we can sequester that carbon," he said. "The future of the coal industry is going to depend very much on how successful that technology is. "In my view, coal is now more dangerous than nuclear.

At least with nuclear energy you know where that waste is and you have the ability to contain that waste." Mr Dunlop acknowledged that the shift from traditional energy sources to renewables would not be painless, with cities built around those industries - like Wollongong - set to be acutely affected. "Coal is not going to disappear tomorrow morning - it's a fact of life at the present time, but we are going to have to wean ourselves off it," he said.

"We can't keep building more coal stations and keep pushing that carbon into the atmosphere. We have got to halt the expansion of the coal industry." Mr Dunlop urged greater investment in renewables, an area he argued Australia was lagging behind other countries. "If you look around the world at what's happening in other countries, they're moving far, far quicker than we are," he said. "We have three times as much sunshine as Germany, who are the leaders in solar power, but their government has accepted that it's serious and has made the investment."