Head of the Australian Local Government Association, Councillor Paul Bell, said local councils have considerable concerns about an emissions trading scheme (ETS), how it will be implemented, and the extra hit that will be felt in rural communities from the higher cost of everything once the scheme comes into play in 2010.

Cr Bell said councils have embraced the need for them to be involved in climate change activities but the ETS and their concerns about its implementation were not on the Prime Minister's agenda for the big Canberra get together.

"The equity of how an emissions trading scheme will be rolled out, and how its effects will be seen across the whole of Australia (is a concern)," Cr Bell said.

"The work that we've done in the past has shown that there are significantly higher effects of an emissions trading scheme on rural and regional communities than on major metropolitan areas.

"That again is an imbalance or is out of balance in regards to the attractiveness and further future opportunities for those communities to grow and attract people to their towns.

"We've sought through our submissions to the Federal Government that any trading scheme should take into account those more severe effects on rural and regional towns."

Cr Bell said there would also be a big impact on agriculture-reliant local economies when agriculture is most likely included from 2015.

"That will again be a double whammy for those rural and regional communities," he said.

"This skewed effect should be considered when the Governments are talking about making some adjustments to how there will be some offsets to a carbon trading scheme."