NZ's carbon market put on hold weeks before launch

26/11/2008 19:08:32

New Zealand's carbon market has been put on hold, just weeks before its planned start date, after the new government met an election pledge to review emissions trading.

The scheme was to be the first carbon cap-and-trade scheme outside Europe, and would meet obligations under the Kyoto climate-change protocol.

Incoming Prime Minister, John Key, and his Climate Change Minister, Nick Smith, say they will adopt a carbon trading scheme in some form, but a revised version might not start until 2010.

The government has also suggested a possible review of the science behind climate change, a move that has outraged environmental groups, who say New Zealand's reputation will be damaged if the concept of global warming is questioned.

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