A proposal for a coal-fed hydrogen plant in Tasmania "cannot go ahead" if the state is to live up to its "clean, green" reputation, according to a respected climate scientist, as pressure mounts on the government to condemn the proposal.
"There's no positive view on why we would want another coal mine," former IPCC lead author and member of the Tasmanian Independent Science Council John Church said.
"Emissions from existing global fossil fuel-burning infrastructure are larger than the remaining carbon budget for meeting the Paris [climate agreement] goals."
Queensland businessman Dave Hodgson said he planned to use a mine near Fingal in Tasmania's north-east to extract coal for use as the feedstock for a yet-to-be-built hydrogen plant at Bell Bay.
He has said he wants to "clean up the coal industry" and claimed the Fingal mine would be "zero emissions" — but experts have questioned its legitimacy given it involves coal, and whether new coal projects should be considered as Tasmania works towards net-zero emissions by 2030.
"We don't need extra coal … the International Energy Agency has done quite a thorough proposal of what they recommend and that's based on expanding our renewables very rapidly and getting out of fossil fuels," Professor Church said.
"So, we electrify as much as we can, then we use renewable energy, and they have a strategy for getting to net-zero by 2050, which involves no new fossil fuels."
Mr Hodgson said his proposal would be "the only clean coal-to-hydrogen project in the world" and had the potential to be used elsewhere.
But Professor Church questioned whether it could be clean.
"Coal mining itself releases greenhouse gases both in the mining and also fugitive emissions, and I'm not aware of this so-called technology which is secret to him only."
A coalition of environmental groups has called on Premier Jeremy Rockliff to condemn the project.
"We believe there is no circumstance in which more or new fossil fuels are acceptable," Wilderness Society spokesman Tom Allen said.
"We call on Premier Jeremy Rockliff to condemn the coal mine proposed at Fingal, re-affirm his government's commitment to green hydrogen and rule out any new coal mines in lutruwita/Tasmania."
Amy Booth from Grassroots Action Network Tasmania (GRANT) said: "We're going to be going forward with the community to do everything we can to stop this project."
In state parliament on Thursday, Greens leader Cassy O'Connor described the proposal as a "black hydrogen" project and a "climate disaster".
Government minister Michael Ferguson said Mr Hodgson's company had "done nothing wrong".
"They have a lawful … mining lease," he said.
"As it approaches its renewal date, the Mineral Resources Tasmania will of course go through its usual due diligence."
Mr Ferguson defined green hydrogen as hydrogen created "with a source of energy which is a renewable resource such as wind or hydro [electricity]".
"And that's how it will continue to be in Tasmania, that's the pursuit that we're taking … a focus on green hydrogen, but we won't be trying to arbitrarily stop others from using other forms of inputs for their own energy needs, that would be totally inappropriate," he said.
"What we do have is very strong and appropriate laws in Tasmania about mineral resources including coal and that's how it should be."
Mr Hodgson said on Friday his company was "not interested in mining coal for the sake of selling coal".
"We are purely here to eliminate the emissions from coal-fired power generation 30 years ahead of renewables replacing the former."
