Australia Drops Carbon Trading Plans, For Now

Australia was developing a regional carbon trading scheme, which would have included China and the US. It was to present it at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum leaders' summit in Sydney in September.

However, it now seems as though the plan has been dropped. Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said an agreement between all the nations was unlikely. "You need to understand that in terms of an emissions trading scheme, both China -- particularly China -- and the United States -- and I think .... there would be some smaller countries in the region which might share this view -- have been opposed to establishing an emissions trading scheme."

Despite this apparent set-back, Prime Minister John Howard has recently gone on record as believing some type of scheme is inevitable. Indeed, he has commissioned an inquiry into the effects on the Australian economy of a carbon trading scheme in preperation. ::ENN