Costello says Australia needs to join carbon trading scheme

Australia will have to sign up to a global carbon trading scheme to tackle climate change, Treasurer Peter Costello says. Mr Costello appears to have broken ranks with the government, which is opposed to carbon trading - particularly without the involvement of developing countries like China and India. But the treasurer spoke out about climate change yesterday, saying the world was moving towards emissions trading and Australia could not afford to stay outside such a system. "I think the ground is changing," he told ABC television. advertisement "... and I think from Australia's point of view if the world starts moving towards a carbon trading system, we can't be left out of that. "I think the weakness up until now has been that key consumers such as China and India have not been in this. "But as the world moves towards a carbon trading system, Australia obviously can't stand out against the rest of the world."