In part two of our interview with the Australian Coal Association’s Executive Director Ralph Hillman, InvestorTV asks whether Australia is on target to demonstrate clean coal technology to the nation by 2015.

We also asked Mr Hillman whether commercialization of such technology is still realistic by the industry’s 2020 target.

“We believe that we will meet our 2015 target for demonstration of the technologies – the question then is when do you build the commercial scale plants?” asks Mr Hillman.

“And that needs to be driven by the right financial incentives. Now if you have an emissions trading scheme in Australia and it has quite a high carbon price attached to it - say above $ 45 a tonne … $40 to $60 a tonne - that carbon price in itself will be enough to drive investment in industrial scale plant incorporating this technology.

“If however the government, because it needs to allow the economy time to adjust, chooses a lower carbon price, we’ll need other incentives to drive this investment – for example a clean technology target, or we’ll need government incentives of financial participation in flagship projects.”

The coal industry is in part funding the research into clean coal technology with its self-imposed levy on coal production. We asked Mr Hillman whether he believed the current levy should be increased, in order that the industry could contribute more to the research effort.

“We do need more money, more financial input down the track,” says Mr Hillman. “But for the moment we think we’ve got a credible portfolio of technology projects and we don’t feel the need at this stage to contribute more than we are already contributing.”

Finally, we asked Mr Hillman whether Kevin Rudd’s ratification of the Kyoto protocol, and the new government’s pro-active approach to climate change, was of concern to the coal industry.

“Well the new government has a - what seems to be an orderly and sensible process in mind to arrive at an Australian target, and has in place a clearly - it clearly intends to consult extensively with industry,” says Mr Hillman.

“We’re satisfied with that process to date – we look forward to consulting with the government,” he says.

“There is going to be a carbon price emerge in Australia – we accept that. We’ve accepted the signs of climate change for many years now and we’re geared up to deal with this issue and our response is clean coal technology and we’re going to continue to drive that forward.”