For Obama's Climate Pact, There's Trouble Down Under

President Obama's climate pact with China is aimed at sparking a chain reaction. With the world's two biggest carbon culprits pledging to curb emissions, Obama is hoping to convince other countries to take similar steps. And the G20 economic talks—which start Friday and which Obama will attend—would appear to be fertile ground for inspiring such pledges. But there's a problem: The talks are taking place in Brisbane, Australia—in a coal-producing country whose government just pulled the plug on the nation's carbon tax. Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who led the repeal charge, has already said climate change won't be on the agenda. And he told reporters this week that he wasn't overly impressed with the U.S.-China climate deal, saying that he was focused on the "here and now." That's likely going to be a tough sell for Abbott, who this summer became the first world leader to scale back a carbon price, engineering a repeal of Australia's carbon tax. Abbott is working to replace the carbon fee with a so-called "Direct Action" scheme, which would pay out $2.55 billion over four years to businesses, communities, and other entities to cut their carbon emissions (groups would apply and compete for funds)...more