New South Wales is calling on the Federal Government to make Sydney the base for the National Carbon Market.

The State Government says Sydney should be the hub for carbon trading once the emissions trading scheme is up and running. The Minister for Climate Change and the Environment, Verity Firth, says the state is an ideal base. "Not a lot of people are aware but the Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme, which was introduced in 2003, was one of the world's first mandatory greenhouse gas emissions trading schemes," she said. "It was run in NSW, has been running for the last four or five years and means that we now have a significant cluster of energy companies, financial service providers, law firms."

Ms. Firth says she will be lobbying for NSW to be the base and regulator of the industry. "We are establishing a taskforce in NSW and we'll be including representatives of the business community, who have a strong interest in the new carbon economy," she said. "They'll be advising us on what we can do to help secure the hub for Sydney. "I mean naturally we do believe that Sydney has the natural advantages. We have a well established finance sector and experience in carbon trading."