Canada: Scrap Kyoto

Two weeks ago we blogged how Canada was back-tracking on it climate change commitments. Now, it seems, the country has gone further and said that it wants the Kyoto Agreement scapped altogether.

Twenty two pages of leaked instructions from the Foreign Affairs Department to negotiators in Bonn last week, showed that Canada wanted the Kyoto accord “phased out in favour of a separate, voluntary deal”. Canada is also opposing the widely held view that targets in the second phase, which begins after 2012, should be tougher than those in the first phase.

The Canadian government advised negotiators that “Canada will not support agreement on language in the work program that commits developed countries to more stringent targets in the future.”