adminSpeaking yesterday in a teleconference from the international climate-change summit in South Africa, Kent said Canada will not commit to a second phase of Kyoto, which would run from 2013 to 2017.
“Canada has made clear this year that Canada will not make a commitment to a second Kyoto period,” Kent said.
A spokesman for Kent would not say when Canada plans to serve formal notice to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that it will not renew its Kyoto commitment past 2012.
However, CTV reported last week that Canada has set December 23 as the date it will announce it is not signing on to a second commitment period.
Jean Chretien’s Liberal government joined Kyoto in 1998, but took little action to meet Canada’s targets to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
The Conservatives also ignored Kyoto after they came to power in 2006. Canada has since set its own target of cutting emissions by 17 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020 — the same goal set by the Obama administration in Washington.
The Kyoto accord requires countries to make even deeper cuts to their greenhouse-gas emissions, but the Tories say reductions of that magnitude would hurt the economy.
The world’s biggest polluters — the United States, China and India — are not part of Kyoto and the Conservatives argue that any agreement that does not include the big emitters is meaningless.
Canada is among those pushing for a single agreement to replace Kyoto that would include all countries.
Environmental activists have gathered in the host city where they say they plan to welcome Kent in their “usual creative fashion.” The activists have strongly condemned Canada for its position on climate change and its approach to dealing with greenhouse-gas emissions.
Kent also announced Canada will spend a total of $1,2 billion as part of an international “fast-start” plan to help poor countries with their climate change efforts. Some $400 million covered the period from 2010 to 2012, and another $600 million announced yesterday will cover the period from 2011 to 2013. — Winniepegfreepress.
Bunjiwe Mkwananzi