Despite a lot of 'hoo-hah' from various quarters to tackle climate change brown coal fire power stations will need to be replaced. They will need to be replaced in order to tackle the growth of carbon emissions causing climate change.  Nothing is going to more important to civilization for the than dealing with climate change. This involves tough decisions such as ameliorating the coal lobby who have at the moment a massive influence on energy policy moving to other areas. At the moment there are several solutions that would reduce carbon emissions from coal fired power stations; One being natural gas. Natural gas could replace coal powered electricity generation within a few  years.  The introduction of 3rd and 4th generation nuclear generators  is currently 10 to 15 years away. That is too far away too long.  One would think though with concentrated and collective effort that could be done far sooner. Action needs to be taken right now, right this minute to remove brown coal fire power stations from the planet.

As are said the warning signs are their and the latest data shows that changes are occurring in the climate which have been far worse that the modelling predicted only a couple of years ago. Events such as Hurricane Katrina would become a far more frequent  occurrence, low lying islands near the coast of Australia and New Zealand such as Samoa are likely to be inundated with water. The consequences would lead to massive cost and a swarm of climate-effected refugees entering our neighbourhoods.

Australia and indeed the world have massive supplies of natural gas. Australia just signed record breaking deal with China to supply billions of dollars worth of natural gas into the foreseeable future.

Brown coal fired power stations have served the nations very well for more than 50 years providing cheap efficient power to growing western economies around the globe. Only now though has humanity realised fully the error of taking up coal burning and its devastating effects on the environment.

Look other renewable energies are important these would include Solar, Wind, Thermo, and Gas and 4th generation nuclear technology. Right now coal plants need to be replaced for the future of the planet and civilization itself!