Gas Sale kick starts Queensland Climate Change Fund

7 November 2007

The Queensland Climate Change Fund will receive its first cash injection following the signing of agreements for the sale of the Enertrade gas businesses, Treasurer Andrew Fraser and Sustainability Minister Andrew McNamara said today.

Mr Fraser said the Queensland Government has entered into a contract for the sale of the Enertrade gas businesses to joint bidders AGL Energy and Arrow Energy for $268 million.

The sale is the first half of the gas asset and wind farm divestments announced in June.

Enertrade gas businesses include:

"The purchase price is an excellent result for Queensland – now and long into the future," Mr Fraser said.

"It will help to deliver a fund that is an integral part of this Government’s planning to keep ahead of climate change.

"Climate science is a developing area and this will ensure we can foster advances in the field as they arise."

The Queensland Climate Change Fund will provide ongoing funding through interest earned on the net proceeds of the asset sales to promote energy efficiency and the uptake of renewable and alternate energy sources.

"Climate change is a reality, and we have to change with it," Mr McNamara said.

"Since the Climate Change Fund was announced in June, the evidence has become clearer about the potential impacts of climate change.

"The Fund will assist Queensland households and communities to cope with the climate change challenge; to find new ways to live sustainably.

"We have a window of a few decades to slow and then reverse what has been building for a century or more.

"This new fund means Queenslanders will have a real financial basis on which to begin living sustainably to change our future world for the better."

Mr Fraser said AGL and Arrow, with their significant coal seam gas interests, plan to grow the former Enertrade businesses, with the Central Queensland Gas Pipeline seen as a key part of developing their coal seam interests around Moranbah.