Some legislative hurdles will need to be cleared for the Prime Minister’s plan to bring forward an Emissions Trading Scheme.

The Government announced last week that it wants to move from a fixed carbon price of $24.15 per tonne to a floating price by July 2014, a year earlier than planned.

Reports today say Labor would need to amend the Clean Energy Act for their plan to work, but both the Greens and the Coalition would most likely block such a change in the Senate, where the Greens still hold the balance of power.

Former leader Bob Brown has backed the position of the Greens party, saying: “What the Rudd Government is now saying is we're going to penalise people right across the board... I don't see why the Greens should change their position and vote for a $4 billion windfall for the big polluters against the interests of the wider community, including the business community.”

Climate Change Minister Mark Butler said for the Greens to vote against the move would be “unforgivable”, he believes Labor’s direction is clearest possible path to effective changes; “We've been very clear about how we would pay for this change, what the impacts on households will be, what the impact will be on business,” he said, “we'll have draft legislation for people who are interested in those sorts of things to look at.”

Finance Minister Penny Wong says the Greens are going against their own values, and that they would “start to be held responsible for their destructive impact on climate policy over these last years.”

Speculation says that the Government likely won’t recall Parliament to pass its ETS plan before the election, and it may become an election promise.