New Zealand will go ahead with its proposed carbon trading scheme despite Australia abandoning its plan to price carbon last month, prime minister John Key told Television New Zealand today, after weeks of rumors and press reports that the country might potentially scrap its carbon trading plans after Australia abandoned its own such plans.

Today Key said on television there was “no chance” that the scheme would be postponed, pledging that it would be launched as planned from 1 July this year.

“If our goods were blocked going into international markets or if we weren’t seen to be playing our part when it comes to climate change, I think that would be bad for us,” Key told Television New Zealand. “Of the 38 countries that signed the Kyoto Protocol, 29 of them [already] have an [emissions trading scheme].”

Click here for a an earlier GCS article explaining the New Zealand ETS (NZ ETS).