Queensland’s carbon emissions targets are likely to become more amibitious, but coal exports will last “as long as the market dictates”, the premier says.

Annastacia Palaszczuk has promised to slash emissions 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, and to net zero by 2050, and ensure 70 per cent of energy demand is met by renewables by 2032.

Queensland has the motivation to decarbonise rapidly as climate disasters have cost it about $30 billion between 1979 and 2019, more than any other state, according to a Climate Council report on Monday.

Ms Palaszczuk is still reluctant to set more ambitious emissions targets, but she’s indicated that they will change as more renewable generation is switched on.

‘Targets will change’, says premier

“We are working very hard, and these targets will change, and I think they’ll change dramatically over each decade,” she told reporters on Monday.

The premier also announced that a $2 billion deal had been signed with Spain’s ACCIONA Energia to build a 1000MW wind farm in the MacIntyre Wind Precinct, near Warwick.

The decarbonisation plan doesn’t mention coal exports, which are the state’s biggest contributor to global climate change.

Burning all 276.5 million tonnes of coal that Queensland exported in 2021-22 would equal Brazil’s carbon emissions in the 2020 calendar year.

Future coal exports dependent on demand

Ms Palaszczuk said future coal production and exports from Queensland will depend on global demand, rather than any state intervention.

“The world is moving very, very quickly, but what we do know is, as the deputy premier said: metallurgical coal is needed for steelmaking,” she said.

“That will continue as long as the market dictates.”

The government is also aware that at least 12 thermal and metallurgical coal mines plan to be operating after 2050, some after 2100, according to RTI documents acquired by the Australian Conservation Foundation.

Court rules against proposed mine

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said coal from those mines will be needed to make steel for renewable energy generation parts, which the government wants to do domestically.

“Coal from those mines will be accounted for in the places where it’s burned, and where it is used,” he told reporters.

The Queensland Land Court recommended on Friday that the government refuse a proposed coal mine because it would have “unacceptable climate impacts” in the state.

“The combustion of which will cause harm to the environment in and the people of Queensland, wherever the combustion occurs,” the ruling said.

‘Stop walking on both sides of the street’

The Australian Conservation Foundation climate and energy program manager Gavan McFadzean called for the government to “stop walking on both sides of the street”.

“Exporting Queensland coal does just as much damage to our climate as burning it here does,” he said in a statement on Monday.

“Burning coal harms the Great Barrier Reef, the Daintree Rainforest and the Wet Tropics – regardless of where the coal is burned.

“With a dependence on agriculture, nature-based tourism and mining, Queensland’s economy is at risk from a warming climate and the inevitable decline in demand for coal and gas exports.

“We urge the Palaszczuk government to be guided by the climate science, not short-term market trends.”

-AAP