Australia Suspends Emissions Trading Proposal

Sydney, Australia - Two-year deadlock, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Tuesday that his Labor government has taken its plan for carbon emissions trading on hold.

The proposed emissions trading scheme to reduce Australia's emissions by 5 per cent of 2000 levels by 2020, giving significant concessions to energy-intensive industries. The plan has been rejected twice in the last quarter of the Conservative and Green legislators in the Senate, and face almost certain losses, if it had been before the Parliament this year.