Canada to formally withdraw from Kyoto accord: Kent

Environment Minister Peter Kent, shown here in Durban at the recent climate change summit, delivered a statement announcing Canada will formally withdraw from the Kyoto protocol on climate change on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. (FILE PHOTO)

MARK KENNEDY
Postmedia News

OTTAWA — Canada will formally withdraw from the Kyoto accord on climate change, Environment Minister Peter Kent said Monday.

Kent made the announcement in the foyer of the House of Commons, after his return from an international summit in Durban, South Africa, on the issue of global warming.

“The Kyoto Protocol does not represent the path forward for Canada,” Kent told a news conference. “If anything, it’s an impediment.

“We are invoking Canada’s legal right to formally withdraw from Kyoto.”

The announcement marks the end of years of controversy — as Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government repeatedly made it clear it would not be tied to the international commitment made by the previous Liberal government.

The Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1997 and ratified by most major countries except the United States. It committed industrialized nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to below 1990 levels and provided financial help to developing countries to accomplish the task.

Although Canada had ratified the accord, it was not on track to meet its targets. Harper’s Conservative government has opposed an extension of the Kyoto accord to future international agreements, arguing that other large emitting countries in the developing world, such as China and India, should be required to meet targets.

Kent blamed the former Liberal government for being “incompetent” by signing the accord and failing to meet its targets. As a result, he said, the current Conservative government, which took office in 2006, now faces “radical and irresponsible” choices if it is to avoid the international penalties it must pay for failing to meet those targets.

Kent said that in order to comply with Kyoto, dramatic action would need to be taken that would take many vehicles off Canada’s roads, “cut heat to every home,” and lead to the loss of “thousands” of jobs.

Kent said this cannot happen, particularly since other major nations such as the U.S. aren’t covered by Kyoto.

“Domestically, we will do our part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Kent.

“Canada, though, cannot do it alone,” he said, noting that this country produces just two per cent of global emissions.

Over the weekend, the 195 members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change finished a record-breaking, marathon session two days behind schedule in Durban, and charted a course toward a new regime to be finalized by 2015 in an effort to stave off dangerous human interference with the atmosphere.

The framework agreement salvaged the Kyoto Protocol, but it became clear that it would not include Canada’s participation.

Before he returned to Canada, Kent told reporters that the government was justified in its action.

“We want to avoid another Kyoto-like pact at all costs,” said Kent at the summit in South Africa. “Kyoto was not effective and was not good for Canada. The previous government should not have ratified it.”

Although countries agreed on terms to make a new global green climate fund to support efforts in developing countries to adapt to climate change and promote clean energy growth, Kent said Canada would not provide any new money for the fund until the recipients committed to targets and transparent reporting of their efforts.

Countries have agreed that they must limit global warming to two degrees Celsius of average global temperatures above pre-industrial levels to avoid serious damage to ecosystems and the economy.

At the summit in Durban, the Canadian government’s anti-Kyoto Protocol views angered emerging economies. They suggested Kent’s position was putting global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions “in peril” and out of reach.

Kent had mused about a formal withdrawal from the treaty that legally binds Canada and about three dozen other nations to reduce emissions, while requiring almost all other countries in the world, including China, to develop plans to reduce emissions and report on their progress.

China, the world’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, has also refused to take on new targets in the near future, arguing that it wants to see more developed countries act first and honour their commitments.

The Kyoto Protocol not only set binding targets on its members, but it also established mechanisms for an international market promoting clean energy development and innovation.

But Kent has criticized it for treating emerging economies such as India, China and Brazil as poorer countries, suggesting that they are unfairly benefiting from targets imposed on countries including Canada.

Scientists and government from around the world have also agreed that humans are within years of reaching a tipping point of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that could cause irreversible damage to the global economy and ecosystems.