Canada has become the first country to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, Environment Minister Peter Kent said during a press conference in Ottawa shortly after returning from an international climate change summit in Durban, South Africa, Canada.com news site reported.
The Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), was first negotiated in 1997 with the goal of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.
Kent claimed on Monday that to meet the Kyoto targets was almost impossible, and could only be achieved through drastic measures such as banning the use of all motor vehicles in Canada. “Domestically, we will do our part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," Kent said. He also noted that China and the United States, the main emitters of greenhouse gasses, have not even ratified the treaty.
The decision came as no surprise, as the Conservative government had openly criticized their Liberal predecessors for signing the treaty “without any regard to how it would be fulfilled.” Canada had also failed to meet their target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by six percent, which had instead grown by almost 30%. By withdrawing, Canada has narrowly avoided paying a $14-billion fine.
Canada’s decision has drawn criticism from environmental organizations such as Greenpeace. “The [Prime Minister Stephen] Harper government has imposed a death sentence on many of the world’s most vulnerable populations by pulling out of [the] Kyoto [Protocol],” Mike Hudema of Greenpeace Canada said.
Japan and Russia have also recently announced that they will not be signing the treaty renewal in 2012, but have yet to withdraw officially. According to Kent, other countries could soon follow Canada's example, perhaps indicates the need to find new approaches to battling climate change.
