Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio has challenged Japanese investors to prove they can capture the carbon they plan to liberate from La Trobe Valley coal when making hydrogen, amid urging of her government to embrace billions of funding supporting the project.

Ms D’Ambrosio has refused to publicly support the Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain (HESC) project, which would turn brown coal into hydrogen, store the carbon in Gippsland’s natural reservoirs then ship the liquid hydrogen to Japan.