Wed Dec 2, 2009 2:31am GMT
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's parliament rejected laws to set up a sweeping carbon trade scheme on Wednesday, scuttling a key climate change policy of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and setting a trigger for an early 2010 election.
Rudd had hoped to take his carbon emissions trade scheme to next week's global talks in Copenhagen, where world leaders will discuss new targets to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
The rejection gives Rudd a legal trigger to call an election, that could come as early as March or April 2010, and to then ram his laws through a special joint sitting of both houses of parliament if he is returned to power.
"We will do all we can, and continue to do all we can to safeguard our children's future. And we will not take a backward step," Climate Change Minister Penny Wong told a hostile Senate at the end of a marathon week-long debate.
"We should leave this place being able to look Australians in the eye saying we acted, we took responsibility. Some of those opposite will simply have to look Australians in the eye and say 'I voted this way, I voted not now, and in fact not ever'."
The Senate rejection throws the future of carbon trading in Australia into confusion, creating new uncertainty for business which had sought clarity from the political debate.
"From the point of view of a lot of businesses in Australia they're now back in the dark. No-one knows what is coming next," said Tim Hanlin, chief executive of the Australian Climate Exchange.
"For a lot of companies that are going to make investment decisions as we come out of recession, it will be more difficult with no certainty about the carbon price," he said. Continued...
Source:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE5AT0BN20091202?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=10174&sp=true
