Canada to serve notice of withdrawing from Kyoto climate change deal

Ottawa - It has just been reported that Conservative Member of Parliament and Environment Minister Peter Kent announced that Canada will serve its notice that it will pull out of the Kyoto Protocol by the end of next year.

The Canadian Press is reporting that during a teleconference Monday, Canadian Conservative Environment Minister Peter Kent announced from South Africa that the Canadian government will serve its notice that it will withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, a climate change deal that was adopted by the United Nations in 1997.

Kent confirmed that Canada will not renew its four-year commitment from 2013-2017.

Former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien signed onto the deal in 1998, but experts say that Canada has not taken enough action to adhere to the guidelines established by the climate deal. Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper has stated that cuts to greenhouse-gas emissions would hurt the nation’s economy.

The Conservatives have also said that the world’s largest polluters, the United States, China and India, have not signed onto the agreement and they feel that it renders the deal worthless. “Canada goes to Durban with a number of countries sharing the same objective, and that is to put Kyoto behind us,” Kent said during a House of Commons session.

In the meantime, Canada is arguing for a single agreement that would replace the Kyoto Protocol.