Isramart : Australian government to present final carbon trading plans

Isramart news:
After months of political haggling the Australian government will unveil its revised carbon trading laws this week, with a vote expected by year’s final day of parliament on Thursday.

If the emissions trading scheme (ETS) is rejected by a hostile Senate for a second time, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd would have a trigger for a snap election on climate change.

Rudd’s Labor government has a commanding lead in opinion polls over the Liberal Party. Elections are due in late 2010.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said on Sunday that an ammended ETS would be presented to opposition parties on Tuesday for their consideration before a vote in the Senate.

“We anticipate that we will be in a position to put a very clear offer to the opposition on Tuesday morning,” Wong told Australian television. “The (opposition) coalition negotiators know broadly where we are likely to land.”

The scheme, due to start in July 2011, will cover 1,000 of Australia’s biggest polluters and will be the second domestic trading platform outside of Europe, putting a price on every tonne of carbon emissions.

The debate is being closely watched overseas, particularly in the United States where lawmakers are debating their own proposals. Neighbouring New Zealand is also trying to pass revised emissions trading laws.

The carbon trading scheme was a key promise of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s 2007 election campaign and he wants the ETS laws passed before December’s global climate talks in Copenhagen.

But Liberal MPs are opposed to the scheme saying it will cost jobs and damage industry. Some are unconvinced that human activity is the main driver of climate change and plan to vote against the laws regardless of the government’s changes.

The government needs an extra seven votes in the hostile Senate to pass its ETS laws.

The government has already agreed to exclude agriculture from the ETS. The opposition is seeking further amendments to ensure additional protection to coal miners and electricity generators.

Australia, the world’s biggest coal exporter, produces about 1.5 percent of global emissions and is one of the world’s highest per capita emitters of greenhouse gases.

Australia has now set a reduction target of 5 to 25 percent, with the upper level kicking in if a stong agreement is reached at U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen.