Canada's decision to quit the Kyoto protocol confirms that it had lost its effectiveness, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Friday.
Canadian Environment Minister Peter Kent announced Canada's intention to formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol after the Canadian delegation arrived home from the Climate Change Conference held on November 20 to December 11 in Durban, South Africa.
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, which perhaps indicates the need to find new approaches to battling climate change.
"As far as Canada's recently announced intention to quit the Kyoto protocol, we see it as another example supporting the fact that the 1997 treaty... has lost its effectiveness in the context of social and economic reality of the 21st century," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
He added that the treaty fails to provide adequate participation of all countries, including rapidly developing economies, in curbing human impact on the global climate system.
Lukashevich also said that Canada would remain a Kyoto protocol country for another year, until all its obligations under the Kyoto protocol expire. The country, which signed the treaty in 1997, failed to meet the target of decreasing carbon dioxide emissions by 6 percent in the 2008-2012 period, which has instead grown by 17-30 percent.
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.
