The COAL21 program is a collaborative partnership between federal and state governments, the coal and electricity generation industries, the research community and the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union. It is aimed at fully realising the potential of advanced technologies to reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions associated with the use of coal.

The program also explores coal's role as a primary source of hydrogen to power the hydrogen-based economy of the future.

Besley said the debate on greenhouse gas abatement had matured over the past year.

“The past year has been a period of increasing RD&D [research, development and demonstration] activity both within Australia and internationally. In Australia, a number of proposals have emerged for pilot or demonstration projects related to the priority technologies identified in the National Action Plan,” he said.

“New RD&D programs have emerged, most notably in the area of carbon dioxide capture.

“On the international front, the scope and scale of the global RD&D effort continued to grow, with important developments in the areas of power generation RD&D, carbon dioxide capture, geological storage and policy formulation. The coming year promises further acceleration of the global effort, including the anticipated release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change special report on carbon dioxide capture and storage.”