The Government is putting hundreds of millions of dollars towards championing the commercial use of carbon capture, regarded by many as a key to cutting greenhouse emissions from coal by storing the polluting gases deep below the surface.
The technology was kicked off by the previous government but Mr McFarlane has gone cold on the idea and says there is mounting evidence to back his pessimism.
The leadership of the Government and the Opposition are pulling out all stops to find enough common ground for the Senate to pass Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s emissions trading scheme later this month.
Both want a deal and to remove the threat of a double dissolution election, but Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce is doing his best to scuttle the bill.
“Last night I launched an online petition,” he said.
“In the first couple of hours I got 1,054 signatures on it. That is incredible. This fight will go down to the wire.”
Mr Macfarlane is no longer sceptical about humans causing global warming but he is now sceptical about carbon capture and storage, something he championed as resources minister in the Howard government.
“The Government’s incentive is just that,” he said as minister.
“It is an aim to bring forward the introduction of this technology into commercial plants as soon as possible.”
Just three years on, he doubts it will ever take off.
“What happened was nothing happened and that is really the problem for Australia,” he said.
“The clean coal option has passed us by. Twenty years to wait before the technology is available. Thirty years before it is commercial. We will need to move on to other options by then.”
‘Technology will solve problem’
The Government is counting on locking up a lot of carbon to help cut Australia’s emissions growth from 2035.
Resources Minister Martin Ferguson has been travelling the world, promoting Mr Rudd’s brainchild – the $100 million a year Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute.
The Minister still thinks the technology will work if there is a carbon price to drive investment.
“I actually think we are going to see a breakthrough on carbon capture and storage,” he said.
“I think technology created the problem and technology will solve the problem in terms of reducing CO2 emissions. All the renewable options, including an initial growth in gas, we are gas rich.
“So we don’t have all the eggs in one basket.”
The two men see eye-to-eye on a lot of things. Mr Ferguson is a nuclear energy enthusiast but the Government has ruled it out. The Minister now argues Australia does not need to go down that path.
“Our Government is focused on examination of all clean-energy options,” he said.
“It does not include nuclear. Perhaps Ian Macfarlane has actually now come clean about the Coalition policy for the next election. Perhaps he needs to say yes or no to that question today.”
“In the short-to-medium term, obviously we will use gas,” Mr Macfarlane said.
“We could burn gas at the same emissions as clean coal but half the price, because gas is so clean. But in the longer term Australia will, like all our other economic partners, need to consider nuclear.”