It's only a matter of time

"Emissions trading will exist in Australia. It's only a matter of time," says Martijn Wilder, a partner specializing in climate change at the law firm Baker & McKenzie in Sydney. The international Bloomberg media service reports that the move by States in Australia and the US to develop trading systems to curb greenhouse gases will see both countries enter the global trading system. In the US, seven northeastern states agreed on a plan that would begin in 2009, with the goal of cutting carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by 10 percent over 10 years. Other states are likely to join. In Australia, electricity companies in all eight states and territories will have to hold tradable permits to emit greenhouse gases starting in 2010. "The states can take action without the federal government,'' said Madeleine Tan, a counselor specializing in the Kyoto protocol at the law firm Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels LLP in New York. "You'll see a few more states interested." IN Australia, three states are hesitating. The US states in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative are New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Maryland will join the group by next June. California, Oregon and Washington are also considering trading systems.