Ottawa - Canada on Monday became the first country to
announce it would withdraw from the Kyoto protocol on climate change, dealing a
symbolic blow to the already troubled global treaty.
Environment Minister Peter Kent broke the news on his return
from talks in Durban, where countries agreed to extend Kyoto for five years and
hammer out a new deal forcing all big polluters for the first time to limit
greenhouse gas emissions.
Canada, a major energy producer which critics complain is
becoming a climate renegade, has long complained Kyoto is unworkable precisely
because it excludes so many significant emitters.
"As we've said, Kyoto for Canada is in the past... We
are invoking our legal right to formally withdraw from Kyoto," Kent told
reporters.
The right-of-centre Conservative government of Prime
Minister Stephen Harper, which has close ties to the energy sector, says Canada
would be subject to penalties equivalent to C$14bn ($13.6bn) under the terms of
the treaty for not cutting emissions by the required amount by 2012.
"To meet the targets under Kyoto for 2012 would be the
equivalent of either removing every car truck, all-terrain vehicle, tractor,
ambulance, police car and vehicle off every kind of Canadian road," said
Kent.
Environmentalists quickly blasted Kent for his comments.
"It's a national disgrace. Prime Minister Harper just
spat in the faces of people around the world for whom climate change is
increasingly a life and death issue," said Graham Saul of Climate Action
Network Canada.
Kent did not give details on when Ottawa would pull out of a
treaty he said could not work. Canada kept quiet during the Durban talks so as
not to be a distraction, he added.
"The writing on the wall for Kyoto has been recognised
by even those countries which are engaging in a second commitment," he
said. Kyoto's first phase was due to expire at the end of 2012 but has now been
extended until 2017.
Kent said Canada would work towards a new global deal
obliging all major nations to cut output of greenhouse gases. China and India
are not bound by Kyoto's current targets.
The Conservatives took power in 2006 and quickly made clear
they would not stick to Canada's Kyoto commitments on the grounds it would
cripple the economy and the energy sector.
The announcement will do little to help Canada's
international reputation. Green groups awarded the country their Fossil of the
Year award for its performance in Durban.
"Our government is abdicating its international
responsibilities. It's like where the kid in school who knows he's going to
fail the class, so he drops it before that happens," said Megan Leslie of
the opposition New Democrats.
Canada is the largest supplier of oil and natural gas to the
United States and is keen to boost output of crude from Alberta's oil sands,
which requires large amounts of energy to extract.
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) said
all major emitters had to agree to cuts so that Canada did not put itself at a
disadvantage.
Canada's former Liberal government signed up to Kyoto, which
dictated a cut in emissions to 6% below 1990 levels by 2012. By 2009 emissions
were 17% above the 1990 levels, in part because of the expanding tar sands
development.
Kent said the Liberals should not have signed up to a treaty
they had no intention of respecting.
The Conservatives say emissions should fall by 17% of 2005
levels by 2020, a target CAPP president David Collyer said would oblige
the energy sector to make sacrifices.
"It's a stretch and we'd be kidding ourselves if we
said it wasn't," he told Reuters.