CANBERRA, April 27 (Reuters) - Australia's government hasshelved...

CANBERRA, April 27 (Reuters) - Australia's government has
shelved plans for an emissions trading scheme for at least three
years due to strong opposition in parliament and falling
election-year support, local media said on Tuesday.

The government had decided not to start the scheme until 2013
at the earliest, taking it beyond this year's election and
shaving A$2.5 billion ($2.3 billion) in compensation for the
emissions regime from the May 11 budget, Fairfax newspapers and
ABC radio said, quoting sources.

Resources Minister Martin Ferguson refused to confirm the
reports, but said the government was still committed to fighting
climate change, which Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called "the
greatest moral challenge of our generation".

"The issue of health care is going to occupy a lot of
people's minds, I might also say, so is the question of economic
management. Even if we don't get a price on carbon there's still
a lot to be done," Ferguson told Australian radio.

The government had planned to cut Australia's carbon
emissions by 5 percent by 2020, forcing 1,000 large company
emitters to buy permits to pollute from July 2011.

But the plan, which capped carbon emissions at A$10 a tonne
for first year and channeled compensation to energy and
trade-exposed industries like AGL Energy , BlueScope
steel and OneSteel , has been twice rejected in
the upper house of parliament and faced a third defeat within
weeks.

The government decided last week to cut the scheme from the
May 11 national budget, bowing to the political reality that a
hostile Senate was refusing to pass it, Fairfax newspapers said.

The decision means Rudd's Labor will take its emissions
legislation off the table until after elections late this year,
which polls have Rudd on course to win.

A spokeswoman for Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the
government remained committed to the emissions scheme, or CPRS,
as the best way for Australia to reduce its carbon pollution
levels, which are the world's highest on a per capita basis.

"The blocking of the CPRS legislation by the opposition has
caused delays and created uncertainties which will of course
affect the budget treatment of the CPRS," the spokeswoman said.

The Australian Greens, who control five of seven Senate
crossbench votes the government needs to pass legislation, said
the decision to abandon the emissions scheme meant the government
should look at interim alternatives like a levy on polluters.

"In the face of ever stronger warnings from scientists, the
government must not throw the baby out with the bathwater and
abandon any plans to put a price on carbon," Greens Deputy Leader
Christine Milne said.

The shelving of the scheme comes as a survey conducted by
Auspoll for the Climate Institute and the Conservation Foundation
found voter concern about global warming had slipped 9 percent
since May last year, but was still strong at 68 percent.

Just 36 percent of voters believed Rudd was the best person
to handle climate issues, a fall of 10 per cent from February
last year, while 40 percent said there was no difference between
the government and opposition conservatives.

"About two-thirds of Australians are concerned over climate
change. We think that the parties that take stronger action on
climate change will be rewarded at the next poll," said Climate
Institute chief executive John Connor.

Reuters.