I recently hosted a clean coal summit at NSW Parliament House and am happy to report a number of positive ideas to advance clean coal technologies were generated.

The summit, which featured Professor Ross Garnaut, was attended by about 150 delegates from the mining, investment, infrastructure and research industries, along with State and Federal government department representatives.

Discussions between experts from industry and government were extremely constructive, and their work on this issue is not only vital for NSW but for the entire world.

Outcomes from the summit include:

• Proposal for a national emissions coal council carbon storage taskforce
• Support for a co-ordinated national approach in the assessment and identification of potential storage sites and transport options.

These were among a number of ideas to come from the summit and are a step in the right direction to meeting our greenhouse gas emission targets and securing our future energy needs.

Drought still bites hard

The drought continues to show no mercy.

Latest figures show almost half of NSW is now drought declared.

NSW Government figures show 48.4 per cent of the State is in drought, up from 42.9pc last month, 23.6pc is marginal and 28pc is considered satisfactory.

Time is running out for the crucial autumn break.

The big problem many farmers face is there is some subsoil moisture but no seedbed moisture to be able to sow.

Predictions were for a 5.4 million hectare winter planting, comprising 4.69 million hectares of cereals and 0.71 million hectares of pulses and oilseeds, but dependent on a minimum 25 to 50 millimetres of rain falling in southern NSW and 50 to 75mm in northern NSW by late May, to let farmers get their crops in the ground.

Total water storages across NSW are at about 23.4pc of total storage capacity, down 0.9pc on last month, but 12.9pc above this time last year.