The Australian government has shelved an ambitious carbon trading scheme that was the cornerstone of plans to reduce the country's greenhouse gas emissions by up to a quarter by 2020.
Labour Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the scheme would be delayed until 2013 because of parliamentary opposition and slow progress on a global climate change pact.
Mr. Rudd said the government would wait until the first phase of the Kyoto protocol expires in 2012 before implementing one of the world's most comprehensive carbon-cutting regimes.
“That will provide the Australian government at the time with a better position to assess the level of global action on climate change,” said Mr. Rudd.
The decision comes after the opposition Liberal party in December ousted its leader Malcolm Turnbull, who backed the trading scheme, and replaced him with Tony Abbott, labelled a climate sceptic by his critics.
Plans for the scheme have been rejected twice in the Australian Senate, where the government is seven votes short of a majority.
The delay follows a setback for carbon trading in the U.S., where a high-profile launch of proposed climate change laws was abandoned on Monday. The proposals had carbon trading at their heart but were put on hold when Lindsey Graham, a Republican and one of three Senators behind the proposals, fell out with Democrats over immigration laws. The move threatens a core plan by President Barack Obama and further complicates international efforts to reach a deal on global warming.
The promise of an emissions scheme helped propel Mr. Rudd to power in 2007, but public support has slipped. Another election is due this year.
Backflip
Mr. Rudd said the Liberal party's decision to “backflip on its historical commitment to bring in a carbon pollution reduction scheme” had contributed to the delay. “It's very plain that the correct course of action is to extend the implementation date.” His government remained committed to cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
“Climate change remains a fundamental economic and environmental and moral challenge for all Australians, and for all peoples of the world. That just doesn't go away,” he said.
A spokeswoman for Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said: “The blocking of the carbon pollution reduction scheme legislation by the opposition has caused delays and created uncertainties which will, of course, affect the budget.” Joe Hockey, Liberal party treasury spokesman, said delaying the scheme made a mockery of Mr. Rudd's pledge that global warming was the “great moral and economic challenge of our time”.
Mr. Hockey said the scheme had been shelved to improve the budget outlook, helping to improve the forecast AU$57.7billion deficit for the year to the end of June 2010. The Australian Greens, who control five of seven Senate crossbench votes the government needs to pass legislation, said the decision to abandon the emissions scheme meant the government should look at interim alternatives such as a levy on polluters.
“In the face of ever-stronger warnings from scientists, the government must not throw the baby out with the bath water and abandon any plans to put a price on carbon,” said Christine Milne, the deputy leader of the Greens. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2010
