The Home EnergyWise Kits have been developed to assist households self assess their appliance energy use and identify measures to lower their electricity bill.

The tools will provide practical advice to assist households identify opportunities to conserve energy, save money and help reduce climate change. The Home EnergyWise Kits will be delivered to Queensland homes in conjunction with The Home WaterWise Service.  Households that participate in the Home WaterWise Service will be provided with EnergyWise self-audit materials, to help them identify areas of energy wastage in their home.  The Home EnergyWise Kits will help households to save money, and conserve both energy and water to achieve greater environmental benefits.

Households interested in conserving energy in their homes will also be able to borrow the EnergyWise Appliance Tester toolbox from their local library. The library resource will contain a portable electricity usage meter for borrowers to measure electricity consumption of appliances, and energy auditing information and check list to estimate and record energy use and identify areas where they can save.

Queensland Mines and Energy, through the Geological Survey of Queensland (GSQ), has lead responsibility for the implementation of the $10 million Smart Carbon geosequestration initiative. The initiative will assess, evaluate and categorise geological sites in Queensland that have the potential for long-term, safe and secure storage of carbon dioxide emissions. These sites may store emissions from large-scale clean coal technology power plants, or other stationary energy emissions sources in the future.

ClimateSmart 2050 identified clean coal technologies with carbon capture and storage as a key mechanism for achieving deep cuts in greenhouse emissions from stationary energy generation on a global scale. These technologies are helping to secure Queensland's future energy needs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Last year, the Queensland Government and Queensland coal industry made a joint commitment of $900 million to accelerate the development and deployment of clean coal technologies. The Queensland Government's $300 million funding contribution was allocated from the Government's Future Growth Fund.

In June 2007, a Clean Coal Council was established under the Clean Coal Technology Special Agreement Act 2007 in June 2007 to
provide advice regarding funding priorities and projects to achieve the objective of accelerated development, deployment, and widespread use of clean coal technology. The council comprises senior government officials, coal industry representatives, and research institution representatives. The Clean Coal Council:

• provides advice on funding priorities including sources of private and public funding
• assesses projects and how much funding they should receive
• considers intellectual property issues
• reports to the Minister on funding requests
• co-ordinates the State's involvement in international research collaboration
• advises the Minister on other relevant matters.

Queensland Mines and Energy is currently providing Secretariat support to the Clean Coal Council.

Queensland has clean coal technology demonstration projects of increasing national and international significance, such as ZeroGen's Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC), and the CS Energy lead Callide Oxyfuel Project. These projects use integrated carbon capture and storage, the key technology recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to achieve significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from the stationery energy sector.

Generating electricity using natural gas produces up to 50 per cent lower emissions than conventional coal-fired electricity generation. The Queensland Government has identified gas as a key transitional fuel source for reducing the emissions intensity from electricity generation while emerging renewable and low emission coal technologies are being developed. Since the Queensland Gas Scheme began operating in January 2005, Queensland electricity retailers and large electricity users have been required to source at least 13 per cent of their electricity from gas-fired generators.

Building on the success of this scheme, the mandatory target for gas-fired generation in the state will increase from 13 per cent to 15 per cent in 2010, with the option to increase the target to 18 per cent by 2020. The Queensland Gas Scheme will be transitioned into the Federal Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme as soon as practicable.

The Smart Energy Policy focuses on Queensland's need to balance measures to mitigate a climate change with maintaining a secure, low-cost electricity supply that protects our lifestyle and robust economic growth and the sustainability of the coal industry - one of Queensland's major economic drivers. As Queensland moves to a lower emissions future, coal and gas will continue to support renewable energy sources to deliver reliable electricity in Queensland.

New coal-fired power stations approved for operation in Queensland will be required to deploy emerging clean coal technologies which provide for carbon capture and storage and efficient water use. Where new generation capacity is required before commercial-scale clean coal technologies become available, coal-fired projects will only be considered where power stations can demonstrate either:

• the ability of future integration with clean coal or carbon capture and storage; or
• the project is tied to direct foreign investment in a major energy-intensive project in Queensland which might otherwise be attracted to a nation that is a Non-Annex 1 country under the Kyoto Protocol (less-stringent emissions standards regarding electricity generation), and they adopt best practice generation technology, or
• Queensland's energy supply security is compromised and alternative energy sources are not economical in the timeframe.