Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, has hailed US President Barrack Obama’s overtures for the establishment of a market-based carbon pricing mechanism.

In his State of the Union address given late last week, President Obama called for Congress to introduce legislation that would establish a market-based mechanism, similar to that proposed by Senator John McCain and former Senator Joe Lieberman a few years ago.

“I urge this Congress to get together to pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the one John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago. But if Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will,” Mr Obama said in his speech.

Mr Combet said that, by the end of the year, over 1 billion people will be living in a country, city or state covered by an emissions trading scheme or tax, with 94 per cent of OECD members possessing such a scheme or in the process of rolling one out.