Canada is to be the first country to pull out of the Kyoto protocol, the minister of the environment announced. Peter Kent said that the agreement "does not represent a way forward for Canada" and that "Kyoto, for Canada, is in the past, and as such we are invoking our legal right to withdraw from Kyoto".
The Kyoto protocol was adopted in 1997 and it commits all industrialised countries who sign it to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. As of September 2011, 191 countries had signed up to it, although soon there will be one less signatory.
In Canada, however, it is claimed that meeting their obligations under the protocol will cost approximately $13.6 billion. There is a feeling that such a price is unjustified, as even if it is paid, greenhouse gas emissions will still rise as some of the largest producers of emissions are either not bound by the targets of the Kyoto Protocol or have not signed it.
It was Canada's former Government that signed up to the Kyoto Protocol, obliging them to cut their emissions to 6% of the 1990 levels by 2012. However, by 2009 emissions were 17% higher than 1990 levels, nowhere near the reduction target.
Canada does, however, support a new deal which will cover all countries, including India and China who, under the protocol, only have to take voluntary non-binding steps to reduce their carbon emissions. This has left some to question whether or not other countries will follow suit.
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