15 Nov 2009

Australia to exclude farms from emissions scheme

2:47 pm on 15 November 2009

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.