Sludge Watch ==> Head of Kyoto body questions Canada's lame climate change plan

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Canada needs to maintain a strong commitment to meeting Kyoto commitments.
Only then can Canada be a leader and set a good example for the US as well.

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Head of Kyoto body questions Canada's climate change plan

By JENNIFER DITCHBURN





OTTAWA (CP) - Canada's "less ambitious" climate-change plan cannot guarantee 
that greenhouse gas emissions will actually go down, says the head of the 
international body that oversees the Kyoto treaty.

The Conservative government's plan to reduce emissions uses "intensity 
targets," based on a company's industrial output, rather than putting a hard 
ceiling on the gases, as other Kyoto signatories have done.

Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention 
on Climate Change, questioned the assertion that with tough enough intensity 
targets, an absolute reduction would occur.

"You can still see a reduction in absolute terms, but you can't guarantee 
how much the reduction is going to be in absolute terms," de Boer said in an 
interview Monday from his office in Bonn, Germany.

"If you have a very stringent relative reduction target, but your economy 
grows by 30 per cent, then your emissions could still end up going up."

De Boer suggested there is some confusion over how Canada intends to live up 
to the Kyoto Protocol, which it signed in 1997. To date, no official has 
said the government is withdrawing from the treaty but the Kyoto targets 
have been abandoned.

The Conservatives have said meeting Kyoto targets would have meant disaster 
for the Canadian economy.

"It's interesting that while it would appear that the government has set 
itself a new target with a new base year, which of course it's free to do, 
that target is less ambitious than the commitment it has under the Kyoto 
Protocol," de Boer said.

"The question is how this new commitment or the new policy objective relates 
to the international commitment or international undertaking Canada has made 
with the Kyoto Protocol, and also how it fits into the debate about longer 
term action that's currently under way."

Environment Minister John Baird said he met de Boer last month, and there 
should be no confusion over Canada's commitment to Kyoto.

"Canada has never had any discussion about withdrawing from the protocol, 
and don't intend to," Baird said in Vancouver. "What we do have is an 
important responsibility is to stop talking and start walking, is to start 
reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Obviously, Canada will accept its 
obligations."

Under the Kyoto Protocol, Canada has a number of options for meeting its 
targets. It can meet them by simply reducing greenhouse gas emissions; it 
can invest in green projects in the developing world (called Clean 
Development Mechanisms); it can trade carbon credits on the international 
market; or it can simply absorb a penalty.

Canadian officials have said the government intends to take on that penalty 
when the second phase of Kyoto is negotiated. De Boer said the penalty 
amounts to an additional one-third of whatever future reductions Canada 
signs on to.

Another United Nations official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said 
there's a sense of alarm in the agency that Canada's reluctance to try to 
meet the Kyoto targets will encourage other countries to shirk the treaty.

"Canada is perceived to be a role model for the United States. If Canada 
throws up its hands and says there's no point, it has a negative rub off for 
the U.S.," the official said.

The comments were the latest in some high-profile criticism of the Tory 
plan. Canadian uber-environmentalist David Suzuki and green evangelist Al 
Gore have both slammed the scheme.

In Ottawa, opposition politicians continued to discuss options for 
persuading the government to let its original climate bill - C-30 - stand 
for a vote in the Commons. The Tories had shelved the legislation after the 
opposition amended it beyond all recognition, including hard caps on 
emissions and adherence to the Kyoto targets.

Still, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said he was not pushing for a vote of 
non-confidence.

"I want first to convince the government to go ahead with ... C-30. I'm here 
as the official Opposition to try and make this House work," Dion said.

De Boer noted that the measures introduced last week by the Conservative 
government also fall short of what other countries have proposed. The 
government wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent over 2006 
levels by 2020 - a goal Baird has said is among the "most aggressive" in the 
world.

According to de Boer's group, it will be about 30-35 per cent short of the 
target Canada signed on to with Kyoto.

"The Europeans have put a proposal on the table to reduce their emissions by 
20 to 30 per cent vis-a-vis 1990 levels. This new proposal is certainly less 
ambitious than that," de Boer said.

"California has made a proposal to reduce its emissions by 25 per cent from 
where it is at the moment. This is also less ambitious than that."

Other U.S. states, such as Maine, Vermont, Illinois, Connecticut and 
Washington, are also proposing steeper reductions.

De Boer confirmed that Australia, which is not a signatory to Kyoto, is on 
track to meet the targets it would have been assigned by the agreement, that 
is, eight per cent above 1990 levels.

Officials at Environment Canada say comparing Canada with the European Union 
specifically is unfair, because many European countries have already 
achieved their Kyoto targets.

As a result, reaching 20 per cent below 1990 levels is a matter of a few 
percentage points for some, and nations such as the United Kingdom had 
already made great strides at reducing their emissions by closing uneconomic 
coal mines and economic restructuring in the early 1990s.

Canada's promise to cut 2006 levels by 20 per cent requires much more 
effort, the department argues, when one takes into consideration efforts 
undertaken this year

Those are legitimate points, Britain's high commissioner to Canada has 
noted, but not a "get-out clause" for Canada.

Anthony Cary spoke to a private meeting of an international think-tank last 
week, and referred to the arguments about Britain's head start as "source of 
resentment and misunderstanding" between the two countries.

"The fact is that British policy is not driven by Kyoto targets, which we 
have easily exceeded," Cary told the Club of Rome in remarks released 
Monday. "It is driven by realization, at the top levels of government, 
starting with the prime minister, that we have entered a new era.

"To be a successful economy in the 21st century, we need to be a low-carbon 
one, and there will commercial opportunities for first-movers."

Britain has already met its Kyoto targets and is proposing further 
reductions of between 26 and 32 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020.

The second phase of Kyoto, which is scheduled to be sealed by 2009 and to 
kick in after 2012, will be one of the hot topics at the next G8 meeting in 
Germany this June. Baird has said that Canada is committed to the next 
phase, and is working to bring other countries on board, particularly in the 
developing world.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/2007/04/30/4142399-cp.html