The investment in so-called 'clean coal' is nothing more than a cynical tactic, and a costly diversion of public funds and precious time designed to buttress the coal industry, not to address climate change. I have no problem with the industry being required to fund its own research and development into "clean coal" - but the reality is that they won't. Because, as Weller is clear, it is a wasted investment that is too speculative to return on expenditure and will likely prove technically impossible at commercial scale.

I wanted to point out, though, that the $100 million investment is only part of the Queensland subsidisation of the coal industry. In addition to this, there's the $300 million investment in a "Clean Coal Fund" and also the establishment and funding for a "Clean Coal Council".

In the most recent Queensland budget, we saw an 2009-10 allocation of $19 million to so-called 'clean coal' (not including money set aside for investigating geosequestration sites), but only $10.3 million for renewable energy.

More info here - http://www.sixdegrees.org.au/content/queensland-budget-coal-versus-climate-change