Australia sets new climate target

Mining is big business in Australia

Australia has said it will start a carbon trading scheme by the middle of 2010, despite appeals from the business community for a delay.

The plan will cover 75% of the country's emissions.

It has also announced that it will cut greenhouse gas emissions by between 5% and 15% by 2020, from the 2000 levels.

Australia has the highest per capita levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the developed world, due to its heavy use of coal for generating electricity.

It's a total and utter failure - it's madness John HepburnGreenpeace

On Saturday, a UN climate change conference wrapped up in the Polish city of Poznan, the halfway point in a two-year process aimed at reaching a deal in Copenhagen by the end of 2009.

That agreement is supposed to have two major elements - an expanded Kyoto Protocol-style deal committing industrialised countries to deeper emission cuts in the mid-term, perhaps by 2020, and a longer-term agreement encompassing all countries.

UN link

The Australian carbon trading scheme will be the most extensive outside Europe, and will see industrial polluters bid for government licences to emit carbon.

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It is expected that the permits will be sold for between A$23 and A$32 ($15 - $21) per tonne, with the price capped at A$40.

The level of greenhouse gas cuts will be dependent on the outcome of the UN climate change talks a year from now.

If a binding deal on worldwide emissions cuts in the developed and developing world is not reached at Copenhagen in December 2009, then Australia will only set a 5% target.

"These are hard targets for Australia. If we don't act now, we will be hit hard and fast," said Climate Change Minister Penny Wong.

But environmentalists have been pressing for a minimum emissions cut of 25%.

"It's a total and utter failure. It's madness," said John Hepburn of Greenpeace.

"There were expectations it would be low but nobody thought it would be this low. Five percent, which is what we are looking at, is an outrage."

Australia, which has been suffering a series of droughts in recent years, is expected to be one of the countries' hardest hit by global warming.