Australian Senate defeats carbon trading bill

Defeat of carbon trading bill delivers blow to government that had hoped to set an example at international climate change talks in Copenhagen
Toni O'Loughlin in Sydney
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 December 2009 09.35 GMT

The Senate, where the government of the prime minister, Kevin Rudd, does not hold a majority, rejected 41-33 his administration's proposal for Australia to become one of the first countries to install a so-called cap-and-trade system to slash the amount of heat-trapping pollution that industries pump into the air.
It follows a tumultuous week in Australian politics, which saw the ousting of Malcolm Turnbull as opposition leader, after he had pledged to support the government's plans for the trading scheme.
The defeat further undermines Australia's already ailing credibility at the upcoming UN climate change talks in Copenhagen.
But parliamentarians from the Australian Greens party welcomed the demise of the Labor government's carbon emissions trading scheme, calling it "a dirty deal, an exercise in double think, and a deceit on the Australian people".
Australian Greens senator, Bob Brown, said the debate in Australia had been hijacked by big polluters, particularly in the coal industry. "Climate change minister, Penny Wong, has made a point of seeing all the coal lobbyists. They're very formidable in the impact they have on policy in Australia," Brown said.
If an international agreement is reached in Copenhagen, the scheme of the prime inister, Kevin Rudd, would have cut carbon emissions from 5% up to 25% by 2020, depending on whether there is a global deal in Copenhagen. The scheme, which would have paid big polluting industries $AUS30bn in compensation, did not require a reduction in domestic emissions to meet its targeted cuts, because Australia could have met the target by purchasing permits to pollute from overseas.
"If Rudd's scheme was adopted worldwide, we would be very unlikely to limit the rise in global temperatures to 2C," Andrew Macintosh, associate director of the Australian National University's centre for climate law and policy, said. Still, the deputy prime minister, Julia Gillard, said the government would give the opposition, the Liberal-National coalition, "another chance" to act in "the national interest" by reintroducing the legislation when parliament resumes in February. "We all know the Liberal party is deeply divided on this question," Gillard said.
On Monday, after a week of angry exchanges the coalition dumped its leader, Malcolm Turnbull, who had brokered an agreement with Labor to support the emissions trading scheme.
His replacement, Tony Abbott, has previously described climate change as "crap" but this week claimed that he held a more "considered view". He wants the coalition to consider the introduction of nuclear power to cut Australia's emissions.
Political commentators are speculating the Rudd could call an early election to further divide the opposition which rejects the carbon trading scheme as a "massive tax" on Australians.