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| Australia sets new climate target | Australia sets new climate target |
| (30 minutes later) | |
| Australia has said it will start a carbon trading scheme by the middle of 2010, despite appeals from the business community for a delay. | 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. | 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. | 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. | 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. | |
| 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. |