Report: Canada to drop Kyoto sooner than expected

By Levon Sevunts Dec 8, 2011, 11:52 GMT

Montreal - Canada plans to step out of the Kyoto treaty this month, making it the first country to officially abandon the treaty even before it expires in 2012, Canadian media reported Wednesday.

The Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper will announce a formal withdrawal from the Kyoto treaty on December 23, Canadian broadcaster CTV reported, citing unnamed sources inside the government.

Speaking to reporters at the high-level United Nations climate negotiations in South Africa, Environment Minister Peter Kent had no comment about the reports.

'Our focus is the rest of this week, working with the parties to the conference to move this process forward,' Kent said. 'With regards to speculative news reports, there is no comment.'

Canada's withdrawal from the treaty would add another blow to the already weakened Kyoto Protocol, which expires in December 2012. Canada, along with Russia and Japan, had already signalled last year they would not sign up for an extension.

Experts in Durban said that by withdrawing before year's end, Canada will avoid paying penalties for not meeting its binding pledges for greenhouse gas reductions.

But moral punishment was dealt out this week in Durban, where the Climate Action Now network awarded Canada the 'Fossil of the Day' award. Canadian youth staged a demonstration Wednesday as Kent delivered his opening address in Durban, standing up and turning around to show messages on their shirts that said 'Turn your back on Canada.'

'Kyoto, for Canada, is in the past,' Kent told the large audience of delegates.

Canada signed on to the Kyoto accords in 1998 under then-prime minister Jean Chretien. But successive governments have not taken action to meet the targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Kent insisted that Canada is making 'great progress' toward reducing carbon dioxide by 17 per cent over 2005 levels by 2020, a voluntary target it signed up for, following a similar pledge by the US.

The European Union has put conditions on signing up for another five year period, by which time Kyoto would only cover about 11 per cent of global emissions. It wants the US, which never ratified the treaty, and China, which was exempted as a developing country, to promise to enter talks leading to a broader legally binding treaty by 2015.

But neither China nor the US, the world's largest and second largest polluters, have signalled they will go along with that. Talks end Friday.