In June, Queensland Premier Peter Beattie launched the $414 million climate change strategy which lays out the government’s plan to lower the greenhouse gas emissions being generated by communities and industry across the state.

The ClimateSmart 2050 report said that generating electricity using natural gas produces up to 50 per cent fewer emissions than conventional coal-fired generation.

“Gas is the key transitional fuel source for reducing the emissions intensity from electricity generation while emerging renewable and clean coal technologies are being developed,” said the report.

“Queensland established Australian’s only gas scheme in 2000 and achieved the target of 13 per cent of all power sourced by electricity retailers and major industries to be from Queensland-based gas-fired generation. Building on the success of this scheme, the target will be increased to 18 per cent by 2020 to provide additional lower-emission generation for Queensland.”

The Queensland Resource Council (QRC) has supported the state government’s plan, with QRC Chief Executive Michael Roche saying “A mandate to increase the gas share of electricity generation to 18 per cent by 2020 will provide an additional fillip to the expanding coal seam gas industry as well as providing certainty for past investments in gas and for future investments.”

Other key initiatives of the strategy include a $300 million Queensland Climate Change Fund to develop new technologies. This will be financed from the sale of government-owned wind farm assets and the remaining gas assets of the Enertrade business. $10 million will also be allocated towards identifying future geosequestration sites to allow for the safe storage of carbon dioxide emissions over the long term.

Mr Beattie said “ClimateSmart 2050 outlines a diverse range of short, medium and long term actions that the government is committing to delivering now to make our environment cleaner.

“If the Queensland Government did not take action on greenhouse gas emissions in the energy sector, Queensland would be emitting 63.7 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere by 2020.

“By implementing this plan we project we can reduce emissions by about 34 per cent to 50.9 million tonnes by 2020.”

In early July, Mr Beattie welcomed an announcement by ERM Power that it is proceeding with plans to double the capacity of its gas-powered Braemar Power Station in the Darling Downs region by 2008-09.

“The expansion of the Braemar Power Station from 450 megawatts to 900megawatts will help reduce Queensland’s dependence on coal generated power and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Mr Beattie said.

“I congratulate ERM Power for providing leadership to the state’s gas-generation industry.

“The expansion will make Braemar the largest gas-fired power station in Australia.”

ERM Chairman Trevor St Baker said “It is a timely response to the Queensland government’s decision to increase the Gas Electricity Certificate Scheme from 13 per cent to 18 per cent, and will introduce more competitive private sector generation into the state.”

“We appreciate the support we’ve had from the state government and welcome its energy policies supporting environmentally responsible gas-fired generation,” said Mr St Baker.

The Braemar expansion will produce 30per cent less greenhouse gas than a coal-fired plant, and considerably less other pollutants such as sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxide. Greenhouse gas savings from the power station will be the equivalent of taking 10,000 cars off the road each year.

Meanwhile, the nearby Darling Downs Power Station was given the go-ahead in June, with Origin Energy set to commence construction of the 630 MW gas-fired power station in August.

The contract for the construction of the power station, worth $780 million, has been awarded to GE and CH2M Hill.

Darling Downs will be the biggest combined cycle power station in Australia, producing enough power to supply the equivalent of 400,000 Queensland homes.

Origin’s Managing Director Grant King said “The power station will be able to operate from intermediate to full base load capacity, and it will emit about half the greenhouse gas emissions that a coal-fired power station using current technology would create. This will save 2.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gases a year.”