IntroductionThe development of industrialization and advanced technologies has played a significant role in increasing energy consumption worldwide. This increasing use of energy has also led to a number of environmental and human health problems, such as greenhouse gas emissions. Despite this, most of the world's energy is produced from fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. For example, in 2008, Australian energy production was 302.13 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) while energy consumption was 240.40 terawatt hours (TWh) and these consumption and production quantities d energy generated 397.54 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (Mt CO2). emissions into the global atmosphere (Drachman and Richard, 2010, p. 48). Additionally, million tonnes equivalent can be defined as the unit of measurement of energy whereby one Terrawatt hour (TWh) is equivalent to 0.086 million tonnes equivalent (Drachman & Richard, 2010, p. 60) . However, Australia generated 10.7 percent of its energy from renewable sources, including wind, solar and biomass, while coal was the main energy source at 84.5 percent, gas 5.1 percent and oil 0.3 percent between 2000 and 2001 (McNeil & Couperet, 2005, p. On the other hand, there is no doubt that coal constitutes a very important energy resource in Australia , as the country has enormous coal resources compared to other countries. Proven resources in 2002 were estimated at 101.9 billion tonnes and proven recoverable reserves at 78.5 billion. of tonnes, which placed them fifth in the world (Alan and Judy, 2004, p. 18). The difference between proven resources and proven recoverable reserves can be defined because not all mineral resources can be extracted in economic terms. and technological...... middle of article...... son, K., & Roberts, A (2002). Australian energy: key issues and outlook for 2019-20. Australian Products, 9(1), 198-208. Drachman and Richard, J. (2010). Key global energy statistics 2010. France: Soregraph. Klaes, GD (Ed.). (2010). Clean coal technologies. New York, USA: Nova Science Publishers, Inc. Kuwahata, R. and Monroy, CR (2011). Stimulating the market for electricity generation from renewable sources in Australia. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 15(1), 534-543. Little, MG and Jackson, RB (2010). Potential impacts of leakage from deep CO2 geosequestration on overlying freshwater aquifers. Environmental Science and Technology, 44(23), 9225-9232. McNeil, L., Cleaver, C. (2005). Energy: Future Challenges (21st ed.). Deakin West, ACT, : Australian Science Teachers Association. Tollefson, J. (2011). Japan is facing a power struggle. Nature, 472(7342), 143-144.