Australia Delays Carbon Plan

Facing a global recession and stiff political opposition, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has delayed by a year the start of an emissions trading scheme and also increased concessions to big polluters. Rudd announced that a plan to cap and trade CO2 emissions would begin in July 2011 instead of July 2010, thus starting the new regime after the next elections. Once the scheme is launched, Rudd said that the price of emitting a ton of carbon would be fixed for a year at the low-level of $7 U.S. per ton and that certain emissions-intensive industries that could be at a competitive disadvantage internationally would be able to pay less for CO2 permits for a “finite period.” Rudd pledged that if an international agreement on fighting climate change is reached in Copenhagen in December, Australia would vow to make even greater cuts in its greenhouse gases, reducing them by 25 percent below 2000 levels by 2020. But if no agreement is reached, Australia will only commit to cutting emissions by 5 to 15 percent, Rudd said.