OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott has backed the long-term future of coal-fired power, arguing there is ''no reason'' new brown coal plants should not be built.

Speaking with workers at a manufacturing plant in Morwell, Mr Abbott said he could see no need to close greenhouse-gas-intensive coal power stations or to prevent new plants being built.

''I think there is no reason why we shouldn't build baseload power stations using coal,'' he said.

''You can't run a modern economy without a lot of power. Now and for the forseeable future, the most cost-effective way of producing power is going to be coal.''

Mr Abbott's position on the future energy investment contrasts with Prime Minister Julia Gillard's claim that there would be no new ''dirty'' coal power plants under Labor. Treasury modelling released last week found that under a carbon price, almost no new commercial-scale coal-fired power generators would be financially viable - unless carbon capture and storage, or ''clean coal'' - becomes a working technology. The exception was a smaller demonstration-scale plant proposed by Melbourne company HRL, which promises to use gasification technology to reduce brown coal emissions by a third, but is struggling to win financial backing.

Mr Abbott said new coal plants should be ''as environmentally friendly as possible'' and that other countries, including China and India, continued to build baseload coal plants.

Mr Abbott reiterated his support for the bipartisan target of a 5 per cent emissions cut by 2020, but said Canberra should not introduce a policy that would damage the economy and not significantly cut global emissions.

Chinese state media this week reported Beijing would introduce a pilot emissions trading scheme, with an expectation it would be expanded nationally in 2015. China has a target of cutting its emissions intensity by 40 to 45 per cent by 2020.

Climate economist Ross Garnaut has assessed this as equivalent to Australia cutting emissions outright by 25 per cent once its pace of development is factored in. China's actual emissions will keep rising rapidly. Mr Abbott said a Coalition government would do nothing to shorten the life of Hazelwood or any coal-fired power plant, contrasting his position with the government's proposal to buy out and shut 2000 megawatts of brown coal power.