The Conservative government is facing a barrage of criticism at home and abroad for its decision to pull out of the Kyoto Protocol, including assertions the move could be breaking federal law.On Tuesday, Canada’s Environment Commissioner Scott Vaughan said he has a legal mandate to continue to inform Parliament of the government’s progress when it comes to meeting its targets under the binding climate accord.
Under the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act, Vaughan is obliged to provide yearly reports to MPs on the country’s efforts to meet its targets — even if the government pulls out of the agreement. Vaughan said he is working with a team of lawyers to determine what the implications of the government’s decision will be.
“If the act remains, then we will inform Parliament, and the question will be: How will we do this?” Vaughan said. “If the act remains an act of Parliament, then we will abide by the law.”
Green Party of Canada Leader Elizabeth May accused the Conservatives of breaking domestic law by withdrawing from the international climate-change accord — a move she says has made Canada a “pariah on the world stage.”
“The Kyoto Implementation Act ... has royal assent. It requires Canada to continue reporting and doing its job, fulfilling its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol,” May said on Parliament Hill. “I wonder that the Prime Minister of this country thinks he can withdraw us from an international treaty which was ratified by the House of Commons with no discussion in the House, and violate a domestic law with no discussion in the House.”
On Monday, just a few hours after returning to Ottawa from the Durban climate talks in South Africa, Environment Minister Peter Kent announced that Canada would be pulling out of the binding climate treaty. At the summit, countries agreed to begin negotiating a new climate change accord. Calling Kyoto “radical and irresponsible,” Kent argued that the treaty would cost the Canadian economy thousands of jobs and $14 billion in penalties for failing to meet emissions targets.
Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, characterized the Conservative government’s decision as “surprising and regrettable” while urging the remaining developed countries to meet the commitments set at the conference.
“Whether or not Canada is a party to the Kyoto Protocol, it has a legal obligation under the convention to reduce its emissions, and a moral obligation to itself and future generations to lead in the global effort,” Figueres said in a statement. “Industrialized countries, whose emissions have risen significantly since 1990, as is the case for Canada, remain in a weaker position to call on developing countries to limit their emissions.”
China, the world’s largest polluter, also took the opportunity to slam Canada on Tuesday in an editorial published by Xinhua, the country’s official news agency.
“Canada Monday became the first country to pull out of the historic Kyoto Protocol, inescapably scarring the global anti-climate change efforts,” the article read. “The biggest concern at this moment is whether other developed countries would follow suit.”
Japan characterized Canada’s decision as “disappointing” and said it should not be viewed as an excuse by others to become lax in their efforts to meet obligations.
In the United Kingdom, Tim Gore, Oxfam’s International climate adviser, called Canada’s withdrawal “an affront to the nearly one billion people who struggle every day to feed their families in the face of increasingly frequent and severe droughts, floods, heat waves and storms.”
An Indian official said Canada’s decision could jeopardize any gains made at the meeting in South Africa.
In a recent report, the National Round Table on the Environment and Economy estimated that a failure to act on climate change could cost Canada as much as $5 billion a year by 2020, and as much as $91 billion by 2050.
The federal government has said it wants to work on a deal that will force all countries to lower greenhouse-gas emissions, including the United States and China.
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Source: Star
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