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Australia's government has postponed taxing polluting industries by a year until 2011 because of the economic slowdown and concerns it would hurt business, the prime minister said today.
But in a bid for support from the opposition Greens party, the prime minister, Kevin Rudd, said he would seek to increase the planned carbon emissions cuts when his proposal is presented to the senate for a votenext month.
"The worst global recession since the Great Depression means we must adapt our climate change measures but not abandon them," Rudd said.
Under the revised plan, Rudd said Australia would cut more deeply into its carbon emissions by 2020 if the United Nations reaches a new pact on cutting global pollution at a summit in December in Copenhagen.
Originally, the emissions-cutting target was set at up to 15% below 2000 levels by 2020. The new target announced yesterday is 25% if the Copenhagen summit can agree on tough global ...