More Good News For Ancaps To Feast On: Canada formally abandons Kyoto Protocol on climate change

Canada is formally withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, abandoning the world’s only legally binding plan to tackle global warming.

More Good News For Ancaps To Feast On: Canada formally abandons Kyoto Protocol on climate change Webkyotokent1352293cl3

Environment Minister Peter Kent confirmed the decision on Parliament Hill just hours after returning from a United Nations climate conference in Durban at which he repeatedly avoided questions about Canada’s commitment to the protocol.

Mr. Kent said staying in Kyoto would force Canada to spend about $14-billion buying carbon credits abroad because the country is so far behind in meeting its targets. He blamed the previous Liberal government, saying it agreed to targets without a plan to achieve them.

“Kyoto, for Canada, is in the past,” he said, confirming that the government would invoke its legal right to withdraw from the agreement. He predicted other countries will follow suit.

“It’s really only the Europeans who are staying with Kyoto,” he said.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made no secret of his disdain for the Kyoto Protocol, arguing that a legally binding deal that fails to include the world’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters – China and the United States – would hurt Canada’s competitiveness and prove ineffective at reducing global emissions. Mr. Kent said he remains hopeful that world leaders will agree on a new legally binding deal under the UN umbrella that includes the largest emitters.

The Kyoto Protocol came into force in 2005, and Canada committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to 6 per cent below 1990 levels during the period of 2008 to 2012. However, recent estimates indicate Canada’s emissions are more than 30 per cent above that target.

Environmentalists and opposition MPs rejected Mr. Kent’s “apocalyptic” language and said Canada’s reputation has been damaged by its role in disrupting other countries’ efforts to approve a second phase for Kyoto.

Alberta School of Business professor Andrew Leach said complying with Kyoto purely by buying credits would likely cost even more than Mr. Kent’s estimate, because prices would rise.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canada-formally-abandons-kyoto-protocol-on-climate-change/article2268432/

More Good News For Ancaps To Feast On: Canada formally abandons Kyoto Protocol on climate change

More Good News For Ancaps To Feast On: Canada formally abandons Kyoto Protocol on climate change

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