According to former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, the concept of “clean coal” is a scam.

Speaking to CNBC on Tuesday as part of the Sustainable Futures Forum, former Australian Prime Minister Turnbull said the idea of ​​carbon capture “simply doesn’t work” despite years of investment.

He explains that carbon capture is about effectively separating CO2 from the furnace from the power plant. The CO2 is then compressed and buried underground, where it is expected to stay forever.

Thinking back to his time as Environment Secretary under former Prime Minister John Howard in 2007, Mr. Turnbull said he used to be a bit optimistic about the idea when billions of dollars were poured in.

All of those investments, however, represent almost nothing. These technologies only work in a few niche areas. He thinks it’s time to stop wasting money.

Turnbull said: “This is a scam. I can say this to someone who thinks it has great prospects, you know, like it was 15 years ago or so. But it failed, and we should work with effective technologies.”

Turnbull’s comments come as major global economies, including China and Europe, face an ongoing energy crisis, driven in part by government efforts to cut carbon emissions. to prevent an impending climate crisis.

CLP Electric Group CEO Richard Lancasterng agrees that the coal industry “has had a lot of time over the last 25 years” to prove itself and it is too late for the clean coal idea to be considered further.

“The challenge we are facing to reach the net zero emissions target by 2050 is that the electricity sector must effectively decarbonize by 2050,” said Mr. Lancaster.

This means that all the existing infrastructure used to produce and distribute electricity, built in more than a century, needs to be replaced in less than 30 years.

“If a technology isn’t ready to be deployed at scale today, it’s too late,” he said.

The CEO says the path to net zero emissions is through “old technology,” such as renewable energy from sources like wind and solar, as well as storage through batteries and hydropumps. electricity. They’re all well-understood, well-proven off-the-shelf technologies, and this is what needs to be deployed.

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