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G-20 MEMBERS093Below: Australian PrimeMinister Julia Gillard(right) and UN SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon would stay on but power prices will rise. Delaying aclear carbon constraint is going to cause electricityprices to go up anyway."Inaction on a carbon price means higher prices. Thereare other significant advantages to acting on a carbonprice. Revenue from the carbon price deliverstransition support to households and industries. Nosuch revenue is available to assist with the costs of thecurrent price rises around the country - nor for futurerises from an on-going investment strike. That isbecause carbon pricing is a major structural economicreform. So unlike the current catch-up round in thestates, any price rises which do flow from carbonpricing bring with them the dynamic benefits of reformfor the long-term. Real carbon pricing reform willensure industry uses energy more productively -increasing outputs compared to emissions. Decouplingeconomic growth from growth in emissions is a keymicro-reform. This reform will also help us compete in a carbon-constrained global economy. Energyproductivity is an emerging new arena for globalcompetition in production costs and it's one whereinvestment decisions now have an effect for years, fordecades, to come. Like all structural reforms, we needconsensus and discipline to deliver good outcomeswhich are sustained for the long term. I know theClimate Change Committee and the business andcommunity roundtables are working hard to deliver thisconsensus. And the Government is determined tomaintain this discipline, by taking the lead in a richer,deeper reform conversation which encourages thinkingabout the long-term. Australia did not come out of thedownturn as the strongest advanced economy byaccident. Government made good decisions. Andindustry did too. nThe above remarks by Julia Gillard, the Prime Ministerof Australia, are excerpts from the Prime Minister'sspeech to the Australian Industry Group in Canberraon 26 October 2010. For more information pleasevisit: www.pm.gov.au. e live in a world that relies heavily on fossilfuels - coal, oil and gas - for ourindustries, homes and transportationneeds. In the United States, coal alonesupports about 90 per cent of its power generation1.Similarly, Australian coal provides about 75 per cent ofits power2. Theory on peak oil has been discussed since the 1950sand although the United States is the world's thirdlargest oil producer, it still imports about 60 per cent ofits petroleum needs3. With leading nations and partydelegates to the United Nations Framework Conventionon Climate Change meeting in Cancun in December,the use of coal and oil, and its cousins in cleaner energyproducing technologies, are sure to be discussed toaddress the challenges of global climate change.I believe one of the cleaner energy producingtechnology cousins making its mark in coal-richcountries around the world is Underground CoalGasification (UCG). As a concept, UCG is not new.UCG operations have been underway in the FormerSoviet Union since the 1940s. Now, more than 60years on, one commercial operation, Linc Energy'sYerostigaz facility in Uzbekistan, is stilling producingsynthesis gas (syngas) to feed its nearby power station.Interest in UCG has penetrated the western world overthe past decade and there has been significantadvancement in the technology to prepare it forcommercial application. This phase of western UCGdevelopment has involved the application ofbreakthrough process control technologies andimproved site selection and drilling methodologies. Putsimply, on closer examination of UCG technology, thescience and economics behind it make serious sense.For those unfamiliar with UCG, the technologyUCG LEADSTHE WAYWPETER BOND, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, LINC ENERGY LTD.094G-20 MEMBERS |