Australia's industry urges more funds on climate change in budget

Businesses want to see more money spent on climate change to help them ease into an emissions trading scheme, the Australian Industry Group said on Sunday.

"We'll be saying to the government in the budget -- put some money back into the climate change action fund, so that industry can get on with the job of doing what it needs to do," The Australian Industry Group's chief executive Heather Ridout told Network Ten.

"So that when this thing does come into play we will be prepared and the whole thing will be better understood."

Ridout said it was also vital for the government to invest in training, said the skills shortage was one of the biggest challenges faced by businesses.

"Seventy-five percent of them expect to be hit by skills shortage at an extreme level over the next five years," Ridout said.

"There's not a much more important issue than that."

But at the same time, Ridout has urged the government to wind back its spending.

"If the budget doesn't do some pretty smart work on fiscal policy, it will put more pressure on interest rates as night follows day," Ridout said.

The federal government has decided to hold off on its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme until 2013.

Source: Xinhua