Governor-General talks emission reduction at energy summit

Governor-General Quentin Bryce spoke about the "huge challenge facing humanity" — balancing our right to energy with our responsibility to the planet — in her address at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi.

Bryce acknowledged Australians have long recognised the need to respond to climate change, with energy efficiency, alternative energy sources, national emissions target and international agreements all playing a role.

She suggested that the development of cleaner electricity from coal is critical to Australia’s unique circumstances.

As such, Australia has taken on a leadership role in establishing the Global Carbon and Capture Storage Institute to speed up the demonstration of carbon capture and storage technology around the world.

She announced Abu Dhabi energy company Masdar as a founding member of the institute, which will open in Canberra within the next few weeks. Masdar joins a list of other founding members of the institute including: governments of the UK , Norway, South Korea and Japan; and companies such as Shell, Rio Tinto, Xstrata, Anglo American, Mitsubishi, Schlumberger, General Electric and Worley Parsons.

“While finding a way to reduce emission from coal through carbon capture and storage is by no means the whole answer to capping global emission, it is a vital part of it,” Bryce said.