The Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute, launched in Canberra on Thursday, will research and advance technologies to capture carbon dioxide and store it away from the atmosphere in an effort to cement coal’s future as a sustainable energy source.

"Coal is the world's fastest-growing fuel, with global coal use expected to grow over 60 per cent by 2030. Initiatives such as these are essential to enable all of us to meet our shared goals of robust economies, sustainable energy and an improved environmental footprint," Peabody Energy chief executive officer Gregory Boyce said.

“We are confident that with GCCSI, coal will be the low-cost, low-carbon alternative."

The institute will receive up to $A100 million in government funding each year.

Headquartered in Canberra, the GCCSI currently has 85 members, including 16 national governments. Already more than 40 major companies have signed on as foundation members and collaborating participants.

More members are expected to join by July 1, 2009, when the institute becomes an independent legal entity.

Nick Otter has been appointed as interim chief executive officer and James Wolfensohn to the position of chair of the International Advisory Panel of the GCCSI.

Some of the major players to become foundation members include: Chevron, Shell International Petroleum Company, BP Australia, Exxon Mobil Australia, Hitachi Corporation, General Electric International, WorleyParsons, Santos and Woodside, as well as Xstrata Coal, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Peabody Energy.

The Australian Coal Association, CSIRO, Japanese Coal Energy Center, National Low Emissions Coal Research and Development (Australia), Underground Coal Gasification Association and the World Coal Institute are also among the organisations that have joined the institute.

“The Australian government’s commitment to the future of public private partnerships is crucial to the successful development and commercial deployment of leading-edge carbon capture and storage technology in a timely manner,” Xstrata Coal chief executive Peter Freyberg said.

“The multi-party approach of the institute ensures government, technology providers and industry are working together to make the development of CCS technology a priority and part of a balanced and cooperative approach to addressing climate change.”

As the first company to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Australian government in support of the initiative, Shell has been involved in establishing the framework of the institute and will be an active participant in its programs.

Shell Australia chairman Russell Caplan said the company believed CCS was an essential technology to lower greenhouse gas emissions as the world's economy transitioned to lower carbon energy sources.

"We need safe and cost-effective ways to capture and store CO2 from coal, oil and natural gas,” he said.

“Currently CCS is too expensive to deploy on most energy projects, so government leadership and support is vital to make this technology more economically viable and widely utilised.”

The institute has a mandate of facilitating development of 20 integrated, industrial-scale CCS demonstration projects worldwide by 2020.

Currently there are no industrial-scale CCS plants operating in the world, but demonstration plants are being built, including some in Australia.

The Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union is also backing the CCS research, with national president Tony Maher speaking at the launch, stating the investigations could help safeguard Australian mining jobs into the future.

“Carbon storage initiatives could protect thousands of Australian mining jobs while reducing the risk of dangerous climate change,” he said.

“Thousands of Australian families in communities across the country depend on the coal industry to make a living and are banking on the development of new technologies that could help clean up the sector.”

Maher urged critics of CCS to recognise the importance the technology had for the jobs of thousands of Australians in one of the country’s biggest sectors.

But the critics are more interested in questioning whether the concept of clean coal is really viable both in practice and as an exit strategy from fossil fuel consumption or just a means for a business-as-usual approach.

Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Simon Roz said the institute was a bogus attempt by the government to legitimise its continued reliance on dirty coal-generated electricity in Australia.

“Carbon capture and storage is an unproven technology. Coal is the fuel of the past,” Roz said.