Canada latest country to opt out of Kyoto Protocol

Even as 194 countries agreed for second commitment period of Kyoto Protocol, the world’s only climate treaty, Canada became the latest nation to denounce the protocol.

Updated on: Dec 14, 2011, 24:15:49 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Even as 194 countries agreed for second commitment period of Kyoto Protocol, the world’s only climate treaty, Canada became the latest nation to denounce the protocol.

The Canadian government on Monday announced that it was formally withdrawing from Kyoto Protocol, a day after an agreement to extend the protocol to 2017 was taken, first country to do so.

“I regret that Canada has announced it will withdraw and am surprised over its timing,” said United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change executive secretary Christiana Figueres.

Russia and Japan have declared their intention to withdraw but has not informed the United Nations formally.

Canada’s Environment minister Peter Kent announced the decision after returning from United Nations sponsored climate change talks in South Africa.

At the meeting, the delegated agreed for a new global emissions treaty by 2015 to be operational by 2020.

Canada said it will join the new treaty as it covers three big polluters --- India, China and United States --- to emission cuts, unlike Kyoto Protocol, in which China and India are not required to cut emissions and US had not joined.

The protocol based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibility provides for mandatory emission cuts for a group of 34 rich countries and voluntary emission control actions for developing countries such as India and China.

Canada was required to cut its carbon emissions by 6 % below the 1990 level but, instead, the emissions have increased.

In a strong statement, Figueres said Canada has a legal obligation under the UN Climate Convention to reduce its emissions, even if it withdraws from the protocol. “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,” she said.

She asked all developed countries to meet their responsibilities under the convention and provide the adequate support to developing countries to build their own clean energy futures and adapt to climate change impacts.

The move could see other developed nations opting out of second commitment period of the protocol, thereby creating a vacuum of climate regime between 2013 and 2020, when the new climate treaty will become operational.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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