The Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong, yesterday admitted a successful motion proposed by the Coalition to reorder Senate business has left little time to debate the trading scheme before Parliament stops sitting on Thursday night.

The reordering motion puts six other pieces of legislation ahead of the emissions trading scheme debate on the Senate agenda, including the budget increase in the aged pension.

The Government has long stated it wanted a vote on the emissions trading scheme in the June session of Parliament.

The Opposition first proposed the reordering of Senate business on Monday but failed to gain the crucial vote of the independent senator Nick Xenophon.

But on Monday night Senator Xenophon and the Opposition struck a deal, and the senator backed the reordering motion in exchange for Opposition support for his motion to delay the vote by August to conduct new economic modelling.

Senator Xenophon's motion is likely to be defeated today, but yesterday's events means the legislation will have to wait until August anyway.

The Opposition and Senator Xenophon are discussing the financing of the new modelling, which will investigate different emissions trading designs.

Senator Wong said the Opposition, which indicated last week that it intended to filibuster the debate to stall the vote, had put political stunts before the climate change challenge.

"We made clear we wanted this debate brought to a conclusion in this session," Senator Wong said.

"If we are unable to do that as a result of what has occurred today and yesterday, that is something for which [the Opposition Leader] Malcolm Turnbull bears responsibility."

The Opposition will vote against the legislation in August.

It has indicated it will not pass the legislation until after December's international climate change talks in Copenhagen and the US establishes its position on emissions trading.

The US Speaker in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has indicated a vote on the Waxman-Markey bill, which establishes a US emissions trading scheme, will occur in the House by the end of this week.