United States President Barack Obama: Let me turn it over to Kevin Rudd, who I think has a significant announcement that fits in with the issues I raised earlier about technology challenges and our capacity to move forward and leapfrog over some of the old technologies that make this problem so difficult to deal with; Kevin.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd: Thank you very much, Barack. And can I say, on behalf of so many of us, how welcome it is to see the return of US global leadership on climate change under your Presidency. In many respects the eyes of the world are on L'Aquila...
United States President Barack Obama: You've got back up here [laughter].
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd: ... It's good that we all hunt in packs; in many respects the eyes of the world are on us, all of us, here in L'Aquila. The next generation's eyes as well on us here in L'Aquila. Because we are doing with the great moral and economic challenge of our age, climate change.
As many of us said today, Copenhagen is only 150 days away. And it will all be about targets, it'll be about timetables, it will also be about technology and the funding of that technology. And as President Obama just said, so many good proposals put forward today on those questions. Within this, one of the great challenges we will always face is how do we put a price on carbon? How do we reduce the carbon intensity of energy production? How do we increase energy efficiency? How do we increase the global use of clean energy? How do we deal with the challenge of coal-fired electricity production into the future? Here are three figures which should seize all of our imagination and global attention. 70 per cent of Co2 emissions are energy-related. As of 2005, the International Energy Agency tells us that 40 per cent of global energy production comes from coal. The third figure is this: by 2050, the IEA tells us that 56 per cent of global production is likely to come from coal. So the practical challenge we face, if we are serious about the challenge of climate change, is what we do also about the problem of coal, the challenge of coal.
At the last G8 MEF meeting in Hokkaido in Japan, I listened at my first meeting to presentations from my colleagues. The G8 set a target for 20 industrial-scale carbon capture and storage projects by 2020. That is, between 500 and 1000 megawatts each. This is not a huge target if you consider that each year around the world some 100-1000 megawatt power stations are being built. But based on our own global analysis conducted over the past twelve months, there are practically no large-scale carbon capture and storage projects under construction now. Although storage itself is being done, five million tonnes of Co2 being fully stored each year, and that's been the case for some years past, indicating that the technology in this respect, can be effective. So that is why Australia in the last twelve months has decided to work with other major economies and all the major energy companies on the establishment of a Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute, the GCCSI. That is what we are here launching today. What will this GCCSI do which is not already being done? Its mission is clear: It's to get large-scale carbon capture and storage projects done around the world, not just discussed. Unless we do these projects, we will not have an effect in bringing down those huge numbers of energy production I referred to before coming from coal and their greenhouse gas emission impact. And deploying the three available CCS technologies that we know of: pre-combustion, post-combustion, and oxy-fuel combustion. And there may be more which will be developed as well. This Global Institute will have three functions. To become the global clearing house for all state the art CCS knowledge, as our view is that this should be a public good this knowledge, given that the challenge that we face is a global public challenge. Secondly, it should also become a rolling global clearing house for potential CCS projects around the world. Detailed project descriptions, so that would-be investors both public and private know where to go. And also, an institute possibly assisting critically with the raising of project finance, given that, in their initial stages, inevitably these large-scale projects will involve public subsidy. And its third function, to become the global clearing house also for the legislation and regulation knowledge which is necessary to underpin these new technologies, in practice. Australia for example most recently has brought in the first legislation in the world to govern the offshore sequestration of carbon. We must act with speed. We in Australia have funded this institute, up to $100 million a year, because we see the great urgency of dealing with this great challenge.
I would like to thank all of my colleagues here for becoming foundation members of the GCCSI. 22 Governments in all, all G8 economies, and practically all major economies, and 100 plus of the major energy companies around the world. And today I also wish to announce that the GCCSI will commence, and has commenced operation this July, under its CEO, Nick Otter. An international advisory panel chaired by Jim Wolfensohn, former President of the World Bank, and panel members including Lord Nicholas Stern, Mr Claude Mandel, former Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, and Dr Leena Srivastava from the Indian Energy and Resources Institute. Other members from China and other countries to be announced soon. So Barack, and my colleagues who are here with me today, it is with great pleasure, at this forum, that at L'Aquila, that we launch officially the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute to make one practical contribution to the great challenge we all face, of dealing effectively with climate change [applause].