Australia's parliament passed landmark laws to impose a price on carbon emissions on Tuesday in one of the biggest economic reforms in a decade, giving new impetus to December's global climate talk

Australia's government released new figures on Wednesday on the predicted impact of a planned carbon tax, showing personal incomes would be cut by just 0.1 percentage points each year to 2050 under

Hundreds of trucks circled Australian parliament on Monday in a protest against government plans for a carbon tax, but the truckers fell far short of their ambition to gridlock the capital in suppo

Australia unveiled its most sweeping economic reform in decades on Sunday with a plan to tax carbon emissions from the nation's worst polluters, reviving hopes of stronger global climate action with the largest emissions trade scheme outside Europe.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said 500 companies including steel and aluminum manufacturers would pay a A$23 (US$24.70) per tonne carbon tax from ne

Australia is set to impose at the weekend a carbon tax of A$23 a tonne ($24.60) on its 500 top polluting companies, newspaper reports said, in a move aimed at soothing wary voters and which analysts said should not roil financial markets.

An Australian carbon price scheme putting a tax on emissions and outlining a transition to emissions trading around 2015 will be unveiled later this week, the deputy leader of the influential Greens Party said on Monday.

Christine Milne also backed reports that the minority Labor government had agreed to set-up a multi-billion dollar fund to aid renewable energy investment under the scheme, hel

Australia's Greens party, which takes the balance of power in the Senate this week, said that major hurdles remained in closed-door talks with the government on a controversial carbon price to tackle climate change and a deal could still unravel.

Uncertainty over the fate of the policy, which would tax carbon emissions from next year, has begun to frustrate investment decisions, especially in t

Australia's government intends to wrap up an agreement next year on pricing carbon, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Monday, testing the strength of her minority rule and pressing the accelerator on Canberra's climate change fight.

As world climate talks got underway in Mexico, Gillard said the government would bring forward by a year a decision on how to price carbon emissions, but left uncle

Australia's government struck agreement with opponents on Wednesday for 20 percent of the country's energy to come from renewable sources by 2020, unlocking a $22 billion investment rush and reviving hopes of a later emissions trade deal.

Australia's carbon trading laws are set to be defeated in the Senate this week, with conservatives, Greens and two independent lawmakers in rare agreement to oppose it.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's government needs seven more votes to pass the 11 bills through the Senate. If the laws are rejected twice, Rudd could call a snap election.

Here are some possible outcomes for the government.