Garnaut floats Gippsland as greenhouse gas trap

Age
Saturday 5/4/2008 Page: 4

GIPPSLAND could be developed into a high-tech industrial hub in the global fight to tackle climate change, the government economic adviser on climate, Ross Garnaut, says. In a speech to the State Government's climate change summit, Professor Garnaut said the Latrobe Valley and Bass Strait had an extraordinary number of sites suitable for storing greenhouse gas underground. Politicians and scientists are banking on the success of experimental clean coal technology- capturing greenhouse gas emitted burning fossil fuels and trapping it kilometres beneath the Earth's surface - to avoid the worst effects of climate change without ending the world's reliance on coal-fired energy.

Professor Garnaut said Victoria, like much of Australia, was exceptionally vulnerable to climate change but also exceptionally placed to win economically as the world adapted. It could make Gippsland the centre of a major national industry, a high-tech industry of carbon sequestration, storing carbon dioxide from other parts of Australia, even internationally," he said. Australia's first big Carbon Capture and Storage project was launched this week near Warrnambool, with a goal of burying 100,000 tonnes of gas piped from a naturally occurring gas well.

Backers estimate it will be about 10 years before carbon storage becomes commercially viable if trials prove successful. Critics argue it will be impossible in the short term to assess whether gas will leak with potentially disastrous effects. Professor Garnaut dismissed claims by NSW Treasurer Michael Costa that cutting greenhouse gas emissions would cost the country up to $430 billion, and slash the size of the economy by 4%. In the latest stanza in a stoush with the NSW Government, Professor Garnaut said Mr Costa was obviously very good" at coming to conclusions quickly.

He said he would spell out the estimated cost in a draft report to federal and state governments in June. Victorian Premier John Brumby said there would be a debate about how much fighting climate change would cost, but that a 4% cut would be small cost compared with the expected doubling of the economy over the next 30 years. In a veiled swipe at the NSW Government, Professor Garnaut said only people not prepared to accept overwhelming scientific evidence denied climate change existed. You have to be a believer against the science to think the right thing to do is nothing, and I think this issue is too important for that sort of misplaced belief," he said.