Canada: Running out of Excuses

Embarrassing news from Canada over it’s emissions of greenhouse gases. It has admitted that it is unlikely to meet its targets under the Kyoto Protocol.
This is made even more embarrassing because Canada is currently the chair of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The COP is the “supreme body” of the Convention, that is its highest decision-making authority. Therefore for the Chair of COP to miss its targets is a major setback, sending the wrong signal to other countries.
“If Canada, especially sitting in the chair, is publicly saying we aren’t going to make this target, that’s basically telling the world we aren’t going to do it,” argues John Bennett, a senior policy adviser at the Sierra Club of Canada.