Australia shelves key emissions trading scheme [View All]

[pampango]

Source: BBC

The Australian government has put plans for a flagship emissions trading scheme on hold until 2013 at the earliest. The move comes after the scheme was rejected twice by the Senate, where Prime Minster Kevin Rudd's government does not have a majority.

Mr Rudd, who came to power promising tough climate action, blamed opposition obstruction and slow global progress on emissions cuts for the plan's delay. Australia has the highest per capita emissions of any developed country.

The scheme had been scheduled to begin in July 2011, but Mr Rudd said the government would now delay plans until the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. He said doing so would "provide the Australian government at the time with a better position to assess the level of global action on climate change".

The BBC's Nick Bryant in Sydney says the postponement is a major climbdown by the Rudd government, which reflects the changing politics of climate change in Australia. Ahead of the Copenhagen climate change conference, the prime minister looked set to fight - and win - this year's Australian election on the emissions trading issue, says our correspondent, but polls have pointed to an erosion of public support.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8645767.stm

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Apparently the conservative party controls the Senate in Australia and wouldn't pass Rudd's emissions trading scheme. Looks like it's back to the drawing board. Again.

I didn't realize that Australia has a higher per capita carbon emission rate than the US. Sounds like the Australian popular mood is that they don't want to do anything significant unless and until the rest of the world acts. That is hardly a shocking attitude, but with the world stuck in bickering mode on any coordinated climate change control agreement, it means that no country wants to take the lead for fear of hurting their economy while others continue to pollute.