Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

No, we certainly do not concede that, Senator Milne. In the longer term these issues will be influenced by the extent to which the industry can commercialise carbon capture and storage technologies. Countries are responsible for their domestic emissions and how they meet their national targets which contribute to the global carbon budget. Australia is therefore responsible for emissions from coal combusted in Australia and for fugitive emissions arising from both domestically consumed and exported coal. For example, the cost of fugitive emissions from an open cut coalmine in Queensland is currently around 39c per tonne, and there is almost $100 billion worth of coalmining investment at various stages of the investment pipeline. When it comes to exports, the majority of Australia's coal exports go to Japan, South Korea, China and the European Union. All of these countries have introduced or plan to introduce a price on carbon through emissions trading schemes or carbon taxes that will apply to coal consumption in these countries.