UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Miliband on Thursday said that he certainly saw coal playing a role in the energy mix in the future, with the assistance of carbon capture and storage (CCS), because the coal of the future must be clean.

"We know that there is no solution to the problem of climate change either in developed or developing countries without a solution to the problem of coal, and turning it from  a dirty fuel of the past, into a clean fuel of the future," stated Miliband.

However, he added that there was a lot of scientific, test and demonstration work that needed to be done in order to convince the public of the safety of CCS technology, as well as its economic feasibility.

Addressing delegates gathered at the South African centre for carbon capture and storage, Miliband said that public acceptability of CCS would need to be gained through rigorous and convincing scientific work.

The British High Commission in South Africa is one of the core members, providing funding for the South African centre for CCS, and Miliband congratulated the centre on the work they were doing.

The centre, led by Dr Tony Surridge, was focused on drawing up a comprehensive CCS storage atlas for South Africa, which would show in detail potential storage sites for sequestrated carbon dioxide.

While technologies for CCS could be globally developed, locally appropriate knowledge was vital when it came to identifying potential storage sites. The South African storage atlas project was started in 2008, and the completed atlas was expected by mid-2010.

Following the completion of the storage atlas, the centre would aim at commissioning a test injection site by 2016, and hoped to have a demonstration plant up and running by 2020, with the target of 2025 for commercial operation of a fully integrated CCS plant.

CCS was viewed as a vital technology if global greenhouse gas emission reduction targets were to be met, particularly in South Africa, where some 90% of the country's electricity is generated from coal-fired power.

The UK has made a commitment, and set aside funding to establish four demonstration plants in the UK in the near future.

The UK has also set out a framework stating that any new-build coal fire power stations in the country should demonstrate 25% CCS capability, and when the technology is proven and accepted, all coal fired power station in operation in 2025, should be CCS compliant.