This week Coalition MP De-Anne Kelly – the federal member for Dawson whose constituency includes the Bowen Basin – told ABC News Online that Australia should increase coal exports in order to reduce global warming.
“We are proposing to increase our coal exports and at the same time export innovative clean coal technologies," she told the national broadcaster.
“If we don't export coal, other countries will."
The call comes in the face of Greens leader Bob Brown’s comments last week that Australia should develop a plan in the next three years to reduce and phase out coal exports.
“The tobacco industry is being phased out because its fumes wreck people's health and the coal industry must be phased out because its fumes are wrecking the planet's health," Brown said.
“Those nations which embrace energy efficiency and renewable energy this century will boom. Those which stay locked into coal and oil will be paralysed. Already Europe is considering sanctions against 'do-nothing' countries."
Brown also attacked Centennial Coal’s new Anvil Hill mine, saying it would “produce more greenhouse gases than the whole NSW transport system”.
Centennial Coal came out yesterday rejecting assertions made by Greenpeace against the mine and reiterated the “strong economic fundamentals” of the proposed project.
The Independent Hearing and Assessment Panel recently advised the NSW planning minister that the mine’s environmental assessment was both “comprehensive and adequate”
Mackay-based Greens spokesman Lindsay Hains has spoken up against Brown’s comments to shut down Australia's coal industry, calling them "unrealistic" and "concerning".
“I believe the timeline he sets out to ban coal mining within three years is totally unrealistic and concerning to many people, especially in Mackay and the surrounding mining districts," Hains told ABC News Online.
Hains said something had to be done within the next 10 years to reduce Australia’s emissions, favouring a price on carbon to create a market that stimulates investment in new low-emission energies.
