Australia Pledges Climate Plan

The Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, has announced a shift in policy on climate change. He is promising to set up a carbon trading scheme to cut pollution. He would set a target next year for limiting greenhouse gas emissions and also pledged to putin place a carbon trading scheme by 2012. Per head of population in the world, Australia is one of the worst polluters. He has warned, however, that setting a cap on carbon emissions would hurt the economy. The opposition Labor party has a strong lead in the opinion polls in the upcoming national election later this year. They have portrayed the government as dithering and backward-looking on global warming. Labor has pledged to cut greenhouse emissions by 60% by 2050. Mr. Howard told an annual meeting of his Liberal Party that if they get this wrong, it will do enormous damage to the economy, to jobs and to the economic well-being of ordinary Australians, especially low-income households.