Dr Karl, known for his previous role as an ABC science broadcaster, says major parties should turn their attention to investing in renewable energy rather than rely on clean coal technology to solve Australia's greenhouse emission problems.

Dr Karl says CO2 emissions from burnt coal would have to be captured, compressed and then stored. He claimed Sydney alone would produce a cubic kilometre of compressed CO2 every day.

He says it is impossible to store and capture this amount of CO2 underground and both parties are relying on public ignorance to sell their clean coal policies.

"How often will we have to build one of these concrete boxes? Every ten years? Every year? No, every single day for as long as we continue to burn coal for electricity."

The NSW Minerals Council has dismissed the claims, saying Dr Karl's estimates on C02 emissions are 2,000 times higher than Sydney's actual emissions, 600 times higher than Australia's total emissions and more than 10 times higher than the world's C02 emissions.

"Some of Australia's leading scientists from the Co-operative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technology, Australia's top research institution on low emission technologies, have pointed out serious technical flaws in Dr Karl's claims," says NSW Minerals Council CEO Dr Nikki Williams.

"Dr Karl is also at odds with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore and respected British economist Sir Nicholas Stern. They have all said that carbon capture and sequestration, or 'clean coal technology' will play an absolutely essential role in the global response to climate change, along with renewable energy."

Both the Labor and Coalition parties have talked up the benefits of clean coal in the past. In February this year, Federal Labor released its National Clean Coal Initiative, which included a clean coal fund worth $500 million to generate new investment in the clean coal technologies.

In March, Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced Victorian-based clean coal technology developer HRL would receive a $100 million grant for a $750 million clean coal technology project.

"While there is no single silver bullet to deal with climate change, Australia's progress towards cleaner coal is one of the most important ways we can make a global contribution. The coal industry is vital for Australia and vital for the world," Turnbull said when the funding was announced.