China, UN urge Canada to reconsider withdrawing from Kyoto Protocol

The United Nations and China have asked the Conservative government to reconsider its decision to pull Canada out of the world’s only binding climate treaty.

This week Canada became the first country to ditch the Kyoto Protocol. Environment Minister Peter Kent was barely two hours back from marathon UN climate talks in the South African port city of Durban when he made the announcement.

The move apparently caught UN climate chief Christiana Figueres off-guard.

“I regret that Canada has announced it will withdraw and am surprised over its timing,” Figueres said in a statement.

“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.”

But even if the decision came suddenly, Figueres had to see it coming.

Kent told reporters he promised Figueres there would be no “unfortunate surprises” during the Durban talks. Many interpreted that comment as a sign Canada would wait until after Durban to dump Kyoto.

That the move came so soon after the summit’s end speaks volumes about the Tories’ attitude toward Kyoto.

Canada signed Kyoto in the late 1990s, but neither the current Conservative government nor their Liberal predecessors met targets.

The Tories have always insisted that meeting Canada’s Kyoto commitments would tank the economy. They have instead set a less-stringent goal to lower greenhouse gases that is in line with the United States.

“We do not agree with a protocol that only controls a little bit of global emissions,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday.

“Not enough to actually make any difference, but enough to transfer Canadian jobs overseas.”

The world’s No. 1 polluter, China, also took Canada to task for abandoning Kyoto.

China’s official news agency, Xinhua, published a scathing article Tuesday over Canada’s decision to call it quits.

“Canada … became the first country to pull out of the historic Kyoto Protocol, inescapably scarring the global anti-climate change efforts,” Xinhua wrote.

“The biggest concern at this moment is whether other developed countries would follow suit.”

Reports on Tuesday quoted officials from Japan, India and the small South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu criticizing Canada’s withdrawal from Kyoto.

The first phase of Kyoto was due to expire at the end of next year. But negotiators from nearly 200 countries agreed to extend the pact until 2017.

However, Russia and Japan joined Canada in refusing to sign on for any Kyoto extension at the Durban talks.

Delegates in South Africa also agreed to a plan to get a new global climate treaty done by 2015, which would start to kick in five years later.

Getting the world’s two biggest polluters — China and the United States — to agree to binding targets will make or break any future climate deal.

The Americans do not want to sign on to any deal that gives the Chinese a competitive business advantage, while China does not want to be considered a developed nation on par with the United States or the rich countries of Europe.

Under Kyoto, wealthy countries are legally bound to lower their greenhouse gases while developing countries do so voluntarily.

The Kyoto pull-out was also pilloried at home.

Liberal Leader Bob Rae said Canada has become a “pariah” on the world stage.

“They went in (to the Durban summit) without the courtesy or the courage to say ‘we’re pulling out of this entire process,'” he told reporters.

“And I think that the way the government has handled this issue is reprehensible.”

Green Leader Elizabeth May agreed that abandoning Kyoto will give Canada a black eye internationally.

She said the decision to leave comes without a vote in the House of Commons, nine years after MPs voted to ratify the agreement.

However, a Library of Parliament study says there is no formal requirement for the Commons to ratify any treaty, although MPs are often allowed to vote on ratification as a courtesy.

The decision has also created a legal headache for Canada’s environment czar.

Parliament passed a law that requires the federal environment commissioner to report each year on Canada’s progress on meeting its Kyoto targets.

But the commissioner is scratching his head over whether he still has to write his reports now that Canada has withdrawn from the pact.