Sydney (Platts)--4May2009

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Monday said the government would
delay the introduction of its planned carbon emissions trading scheme by one
year to July 1, 2011.
Rudd told a televised press conference that an unlimited number of carbon
trading permits would be issued to liable companies in the first year of the
scheme at a price of A$10 ($7.31)/mt. A floating price would apply from July
1, 2012.
The government has also revised its emission reduction goal to 25% of
2000 levels by 2020, "if the world agrees to an ambitious global deal to
stabilize levels of CO2 equivalent in the atmosphere at 450 parts per million
by 2050."
Australia late last year pledged to cut the nation's carbon emissions by
between 5% and 15% from the 2000 level by 2020. Rudd said the government
remained "committed to reducing carbon pollution by 5% against 2000 levels by
2020, regardless of action taken internationally."
Rudd described the changes as "a slower start to the carbon pollution
reduction scheme and a prospect of a stronger, greener conclusion." He said
the move was aimed at helping business at a time of duress and underpinning
the dynamic of getting a "really positive outcome" at the Copenhagen climate
change conference in December this year.
--Christine Forster, christine_forster@platts.com