China and India Business Mission

Ms LEE RHIANNON: I direct my question to the Minister for Mineral Resources. Further to Premier Iemma's report to Parliament that BHP Billiton and other coalmining companies joined the Minister on his recent mission to India and China and the Minister's comments on this visit, can he expand his comments by informing the House which coal companies were part of the delegation? Who were the representatives that accompanied him on this visit? With whom did he and these companies meet? Were the negotiations successful and what deals were struck? Did he provide any guarantees as to when the third Newcastle coal loader will be completed and, if so, what were those guarantees? Did he promote New South Wales renewable energy efficiency technology on his visit? Were any contracts concluded?

The Hon. IAN MACDONALD: I will deal with the last point first. Yesterday I explained to the House that part of the mission was to promote New South Wales clean coal technology development. We certainly did that. As I pointed out yesterday, we signed a memorandum of understanding with the Huaneng group, which is China's largest electricity provider and a member of the FutureGen alliance. That alliance is involved in a major international project for the establishment of a significant commercial plant utilising clean coal technology in the United States in 2011. Huaneng is also building a project at Tianjin called GreenGen, which is a 250 megawatt integrated gasification combined cycle plant that will be connected to oil fields offshore of Tianjin utilising a greenfield site. I also pointed out yesterday the great work that the New South Wales Government is doing in this area, together with Delta, the Australian Coal Association and the CSIRO, with the establishment of a carbon capture project at Munmorah, to be opened next year.

It is a pilot plant using chilled ammonium processes. The plant will open; it will separate the carbon; it will prove the CSIRO technology and, as I have pointed out, it will then take it a step further in 2009 with the development of a $150-million demonstration plant, which will not only capture the carbon but also store it: it is a sequestration project as well. I pointed out what we were doing in this area. I also pointed out the ultra-clean coal technology that is being pursued by Felix Resources at Cessnock, which the Government has assisted with a substantial grant of $1.9 million. It uses far cleaner coal burning processes.

I pointed out that we would welcome partnerships in clean coal technology development. They pointed out that over the past two years they have closed 200 very low-efficiency plants to try to cut back on carbon emissions. Those plants are in the order of 20 to 25 per cent efficient and their new plants will be using far more modern, far more efficient processes to reduce carbon. China has embarked on a number of strategies to try to offset its carbon emissions, including the building of large dams. Of course, the Three Gorges Dam is now one of the most significant dams in China. The cement does produce some emissions, but there are no emissions after it has been finalised. That is another of China's strategies to reduce carbon. It is also talking about nuclear power and building nuclear plants. Of course, New South Wales does not support nuclear plants.

I also pointed out that in New South Wales we have a forestry abatement scheme—an offset scheme and the world's first—and we have been able to secure investment from Tokyo Electric Power. [Time expired.]