Global mining heavyweight BHP Billiton has backed "a price on carbon emissions" as part of its submission to the Finkel Review of Australia's energy system.

The apparent endorsement of the Emissions Intensity Scheme (EIS) backed by federal Labor and the Climate Change Authority was accompanied by a call for the government to fund carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. Sorry, this audio has expired Listen to RN Breakfast

A technology neutral approach, the submission argued, "can result in a range of generation technologies being implemented including wind, coal, solar, gas and hydro. The simplest way to do this is to put a price on carbon emissions for the electricity system".

Government funding for carbon capture

Mike Henry, president of operations for BHP Billiton's Minerals Australia, is pushing for ongoing taxpayer funding for CCS, which is unproven at scale, and estimated to add 25 to 30 per cent to the cost of a new build coal-fired power station.

However, he would not would not specify what form of subsidy or incentive BHP Billiton is seeking.

"That's something that would still need to be worked through at the state and federal government level," he told RN Breakfast.

"BHP is already funding CCS research and sharing CCS information through some of its investments in Canada and up in China, so industry is already playing a role here."

"But the government has a role to play in terms of putting in place the regulatory framework that makes it easier for companies to invest in CCS, and the government may have a role to play in opening up CCS as one of these technology-neutral options for reducing emissions."

BHP wants state-based RETs scrapped

The company made clear in its submission that it believes wind, solar and other renewables should not be subsidised through the Renewable Energy Target (RET).

In the Finkel submission, the company argued for the scrapping of state-based RETs, in favour of pursuing "a national approach to emissions reduction in the electricity generation sector".

But Mr Henry would not commit to supporting a national RET beyond 2020, when it is currently due to expire.

"The RET's been a policy that's been in place for a long time now," said Mr Henry.

"It's provided investment certainty, but one of the issues with the RET is that it doesn't incentivise a broad range of low emissions technology options. It only allows certain options.

"We come at this from the perspective of technology neutrality, which opens up the options for achieving that reduction in emissions."

Incentives for baseload power in SA

In its Finkel Review submission, BHP also called for "short-to-medium term" incentives to build new baseload power generation in South Australia.

In the submission, the company detailed a US$105 million hit to its copper, gold and uranium mining and processing operations at Olympic Dam as the plant shut down for 14 days after the superstorm in South Australia last September.

The company called it a "very serious" black system incident.

"The 14-day outage, and the subsequent ramping up of operations, resulted in lost production of 15,000 tonnes," the submission said.

But the company said the cost this financial year would be even higher, as power prices average 50 per cent more in South Australia than Victoria.

Fossil fuels useful 'for a long time yet'

Mr Henry said the company's recent downsizing of its thermal coal investments was not because the company had seen the writing on the wall for coal.

"Like the clarity that we've brought to our position on climate change, we've also been very clear on our position on thermal coal," he said.

"That view is that the world's going to use thermal coal for a long time yet, as it will with other fossil fuels, and it's important to note here is that's not just our view.

"The world's body of pre-eminent climate change scientists, the IPCC [the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change], is also of the view that fossil fuels are going to be with us for a long period of time now, and it's one of the reasons why they advocate for CCS."