Canada will not renew Kyoto commitment

Postmedia News December 5, 2011 9:06 AM
 Canada will not renew its commitment to the Kyoto Protocol once it expires in 2012, Environment Minister Peter Kent confirmed Monday in Durban, South Africa.  The Kyoto agreement, an update to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, is the only legally binding treaty in the world that requires countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that trap heat in the atmosphere.  The nations that signed the UN treaty in 1992, both developed and developing nations, agreed on the necessity to take measures to prevent human activity from causing dangerous interference with the climate. It is based on a principle in the convention that developed countries are responsible for causing climate change and must act first to address the problem.  "The parties should protect the climate system for the benefit of present and future generations of humankind, on the basis of equity and in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities," reads the convention. "Accordingly, the developed country Parties should take the lead in combating climate change and the adverse effects thereof."  Industrialized countries were required to reduce emissions by an average of five per cent below 1990 levels during Kyoto's first commitment period of 2008 to 2012 — goals that Canada failed to meet.

But the Harper government has long argued against extending the Kyoto agreement, and has set new, less-demanding domestic targets. The federal government led by the Liberals ratified the agreement in 2002, and the protocol has accounting, compliance and reporting measures built into its structure. The government's view now is that the United Nations climate-change treaty must be replaced with a different agreement that builds on progress from the last two United Nations annual summits, in Cancun and Copenhagen, and includes commitments from major emitters such as the United States and China, Kent said.