Reuters: Australia’s government defended its scheme to cut carbon emissions on Friday, amid mining industry warnings that its carbon trading plan would cost 23,000 resource sector jobs as the country battles recession. The powerful Minerals Council of Australia, representing miners, said carbon emissions trading would see 23,510 mining jobs cut after its 2011 start and almost triple that number by 2030, mostly in Queensland state’s major coal industry. “We undertook … the largest …