Australian Prime Minister John Howard will hold talks with coal producers on Wednesday to discuss ways to clean up the industry as he shifts ground on environmental issues ahead of elections in late 2007. With climate change shaping up as a key issue for next year's elections, Howard has overturned his blanket opposition to carbon trading and has set up a task force with business to look at how Australia could be part of a global trading scheme.

Business and major manufacturers welcomed the move but critics said the inquiry would be waste of time and money and was driven by politics rather than environmental concerns. "The prime minister is putting the coal industry in charge of clean air. The aim of an emissions trading scheme is to reduce emissions, not protect the interest of polluters," Greens leader Bob Brown said on Tuesday.

Carbon trading imposes strict limits on greenhouse gas emissions and creates financial incentives for companies to become cleaner through a system of selling "carbon credits". Howard's decision to examine carbon trading came after Treasurer Peter Costello said on Sunday Australia could join a global trading system in the next decade under an updated Kyoto agreement, which is the subject of talks in Kenya this week.

COAL EXPORTER
Australia is the world's biggest coal exporter and Howard, a strong supporter of the industry, has regularly opposed carbon trading, saying it would penalise Australia's resources industry and push jobs offshore. Australia is expected to export about 139 million tonnes of coal worth A$17 billion (US$13.2 billion) this year.

Australia and the United States have refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions, which are blamed for global warming. But recent opinion polls show Howard's conservative government is level with the Labor opposition, which has gained support on the back of promises to sign the Kyoto Protocol and bring Australian troops back from Iraq.

Howard wants a global emissions scheme that would also include the United States, China, India, Mexico and Argentina, which are not bound by the existing Kyoto protocol. "We need a new Kyoto that includes Australia but includes Australia on a basis which is appropriate to our interests and our needs," he said. "It's in Australia's national interest to play a part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but in a way that doesn't damage our vital industries such as the coal industry, and doesn't in any way diminish the great natural advantage that providence has given us in relation to fossil fuels."

Howard will discuss the proposal with US President George W. Bush on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Vietnam later this week.
By James Grubel
(Planet Ark, 15/11/2006)
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/38990/story.htm