Australia's carbon trading scheme in jeopardy

Nov 26, 2009, 9:20 GMT

   Sydney - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's chances of having legislation for a carbon trading scheme through Parliament before next month's climate conference in Copenhagen was placed in jeopardy Thursday by a mutiny within the opposition Liberal Party.

   Rudd needs just seven Liberal members of the upper house, the Senate, to vote with the Labor government to have rules for a European-style cap-and-trade scheme on the books before parliament breaks up for the Christmas holidays.

   The draft legislation has already passed the lower house, where Rudd's Labor has a majority, and Tuesday is seen as the last sitting day for the Senate.

   Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull is pushing his Liberal-led coalition to pass the legislation after Rudd agreed to a demand for more compensation for coal miners, electricity generators and other big polluters.

   But climate change skeptics have banded together to try and both force Turnbull from office and block the passage of the bill.

   Six frontbenchers have resigned and are pushing for another leadership contest. Turnbull, who narrowly won a leadership ballot on Wednesday, is refusing to sanction another contest or voluntarily step down from the leadership.

   'This has now become a question not simply of the environmental responsibility of the Liberal Party but its integrity,' Turnbull said amidst the turmoil. 'We agreed with the government on this deal. We must retain our credibility of taking action on climate change.'

   Rudd argues it is essential for Australia to take a blueprint to Copenhagen for action on reducing carbon emissions.

   Australia, the world's largest exporter of coal, is also among the biggest per capita polluters with an average output of 20.5 tons of carbon dioxide per person per year, compared with 19.7 tons for the United States, 4.5 tons for China and just 1.1 tons for India.

   Rudd's emissions trading scheme would start in July 2011 and set a low starting price on carbon that effectively delays the creation of a carbon market by another year.

   He is relying on the scheme to help him deliver on his promise of a unilateral 5-per-cent emissions reduction target on 2000 levels by 2020.

   Rudd has promised to go as high as 25 per cent if there were matching commitments at the Copenhagen meeting.

   Mark Diesendorf of the Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of New South Wales said the offer of a 25-per cent reduction was a charade because 'it's a reduction that would occur under circumstances that would probably never occur.'