Australian Senate Rejects Climate-Change Bill

Bloomberg News (8/13) reports, "Australia's Senate rejected the government's climate-change legislation, forcing Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to amend the bill or call an early election." The legislation "included plans for a carbon trading system similar to one used in Europe," among other things. "Australia, the world's biggest coal exporter, was proposing to reduce greenhouse gases by between 5 percent and 15 percent of 2000 levels in the next decade." The article notes, "Five members from the Australian Greens party sought bigger cuts to emissions while the opposition coalition and independent Senator Nick Xenophon wanted to wait for further studies on the plan's impact on the economy."