Certainty of carbon pricing very important: BHP

MELBOURNE Oct 22 (Reuters) - BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) (BLT.L), the world's largest miner, made an appeal for certainty over carbon pricing on Thursday, as Australian lawmakers near a definitive vote on the nation's plan to curb carbon emissions.

BHP Billiton faces major new costs under the plan, which would requiring the nation's biggest polluters to pay for emission permits from 2011.

"As I focus on the real objective -- and this is to decrease the amount of CO2 going into the atmosphere -- certainty of carbon pricing is extremely important," outgoing Chairman Don Argus said in a speech at a business lunch.

Argus is set to retire in early 2010 after more than 10 years in the job and will be replaced by former Ford Motor Co (F.N) chief Jac Nasser. (Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Mark Bendeich)