Canada grows cool on climate treaty

Canada?s minority Conservative government has signalled a waning commitment to the Kyoto protocol on climate change, on the grounds that the treaty does not include some of the world?s heaviest polluters.

The treaty requires developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions relative to 1990 levels by 2012, but the US and Australia have refused to ratify the protocol.

The treaty, which sets targets for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2012, has been signed by 163 countries. Although most developing nations, including rapidly industrialising countries such as China and India, have ratified the treaty, they are not subject to emission-reduction targets.

Canada ratified the agreement in December 2002 under the previous Liberal government. But the Tories, who took office in January, have questioned its economic cost and raised doubts whether its goals can be achieved. Some sections of the business community, notably the Alberta-based oil industry, lobbied hard against ratification.

Rona Ambrose, environment minister, told CTV television: ?If an international consensus emerges . . . [that] includes all of our international partners, Canada will be at the table.?

She said a new agreement ?might be something outside of the Kyoto protocol [or] inside the Kyoto protocol?.

According to instructions to Canadian negotiators leaked to The Globe and Mail, Ottawa will not support efforts by other Kyoto signatories to set deeper emission-reduction targets for industrialised countries beyond 2012.

The instructions indicate that the government wants the Kyoto protocol phased out in favour of a voluntary arrangement. Australia?s prime minister John Howard encouraged Canada last week to join the six-nation voluntary Asia-Pacific partnership on clean development, energy security, and climate change. The partnership, comprising six countries, including the US, China and Japan, puts the emphasis on private-sector technology to fight air pollution. It does not include emissions reduction targets.

Ironically, Ms Ambrose is chairing multilateral talks in Germany this month to negotiate the post-2012 Kyoto targets. Critics have urged her to step down.

Ms Ambrose said the new government would launch its own initiatives to ?clean up our own back yard?.

The Tories? first budget, tabled this month, earmarked C$2bn over the next five years for a ?Made in Canada? climate change programme. It also included extra subsidies to local governments to improve public transport facilities, and a tax credit for purchases of monthly public transport passes.

The government is due to release today a strategy to encourage wider use of renewable fuels. The Tories? stance has drawn strong criticism from the opposition parties and environmental groups. Opinion polls suggest that most Canadians support the Kyoto agreement.