Agriculture will be permanently excluded from the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), a concession to the Coalition that raises hopes that the emissions trading legislation will pass through parliament before the Copenhagen climate summit next month. But farmers will still be able to benefit from carbon trading by obtaining credits for minimising emissions.

The sector contributed 16.3 percent of Australia’s emissions in 2007, making it the biggest polluter after the energy sector, according to the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory. Agriculture was initially intended to be excluded from the emissions trading scheme until 2015 and be reconsidered for later involvement.

“We still don’t have the full reply from those opposite,” Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters at the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) leaders’ summit in Singapore. ”The reason why we’ve done what we’ve done on agriculture is to underline what we’re on about here – which is good-faith negotiations.”

The CPRS  provides for at least a 5 percent emissions reduction by 2020 and up to 25 percent if a global agreement is reached at Copenhagen. The legislation will be debated over the course of coming weeks.