Australia's government has agreed to exclude agriculture from its emissions trading scheme in a bid to get the scheme through parliament.
The scheme has been held up in the Senate where the Labour government does not have a majority.
The decision to exclude agriculture from the scheme is a major concession to the conservative opposition.
But Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner says while the government has agreed to the conservative coalition's demand on this point, it doesn't mean a deal has been struck.
The government had planned to include agriculture in the scheme from 2015.
The government is trying to get the emissions trading scheme passed before a U.N. climate change conference next month.
Australia, the world's biggest coal exporter, produces about 1.5% of global emissions and is one of the world's highest per capita emitters of greenhouse gases.