Kent urges Durban conference to turn page on Kyoto

A speech by Envrionment Minister Peter Kent was momentarily disrupted by a small group of Canadian youth at the Durban climate conference Dec. 7. The protestors stood up and turned their backs to Kent from the rear of the room. Wearing white T-shirts with the words “people before polluters,” and “turn your back on Canada,” they were escorted out by security to applause as Kent continued his address. (PHOTO BY MIKE DE SOUZA)

MIKE DE SOUZA
Postmedia News

DURBAN, South Africa — Environment Minister Peter Kent urged the international community Wednesday to turn the page on the Kyoto Protocol and to build a global climate solution around a series of agreements reached last year in Cancun.

“The Canadian government — and reasonable Canadians generally — recognize that global issues like climate change require global solutions,” Kent said as he addressed delegates gathered for international climate change negotiations.

He said the Kyoto agreement, the world’s only treaty that requires mandatory reductions on greenhouse gas emissions, is not effective or as comprehensive as all of the Cancun agreements which established a new framework for preventing dangerous human interference with the atmosphere.

“We must be fair if we are to be effective,” Kent said. “That is why for Canada, the Kyoto Protocol is not where the solution lies — it is an agreement that covers fewer than 30 per cent of global emissions. Kyoto, for Canada, is in the past.”

The speech was momentarily disrupted when a small group of Canadian youth at the conference stood up and turned their backs to Kent from the rear of the room. Wearing white T-shirts with the words “people before polluters,” and “turn your back on Canada,” they were escorted out by security to applause as Kent continued his address.

In his speech, Kent noted that the Cancun Agreements cover three quarters of global emissions, twice as much as those with targets under Kyoto.

Canada has been publicly and privately criticized by other countries at the conference for refusing to support extending the Kyoto agreement beyond 2013 by accepting a new round of commitments.

Delegates have also been angered by rumours, neither confirmed nor denied by Kent, that the federal government plans to formally withdraw from the treaty after the conference.

The Cancun agreements did not set any mandatory reductions for any country, but Kent said the deals were more “realistic.”

He also highlighted a series of measures and regulations the government has started to take in Canada to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, sector by sector.

“From programs to get more electric vehicles rolling on our roads to the development of carbon capture and storage, from the closure of dirty coal plants to the harnessing of hydroelectric power,” he said, “Our collective action is allowing us to go further, faster.”

He said he was hoping the international community would also work collaboratively together to address “a common challenge,” and noted previously announced commitments to offer $1.2 billion in fast-start financing to help developing countries cope with climate change.

He said Canada also supported the development of a Green Climate Fund, that the conference is still negotiating and debating for implementation.is still being negotiated and debated, in terms of implementation by the conference.

“It is that same sort of approach that we are seeking to advance here on the internationally scene—all parties working collaboratively together to address a common challenge.

“Canada is carrying our weight — and doing our share,” Kent said. “And we hope all countries will join us in this global effort by undertaking concrete and quantifiable measures to reduce emissions significantly.”