The Toronto Star reports that, “The (Harper) government’s push to abandon much of the Kyoto Protocol prompted dozens of developing countries to walk out on Canada’s address during recent climate talks in Thailand, the Canadian Press has learned.”
“The mass walkout came after the Canadian delegation suggested replacing the Kyoto Protocol with an entirely new global-warming pact, according to one of the negotiators and notes taken by others at the meeting.”
“The developing countries want a new climate deal to complement Kyoto, but Canadian officials told the room they would rather replace Kyoto with one agreement…”
“Canada’s delegation was apparently open to putting ‘some or all’ of Kyoto in a new climate pact…”
“At that point, the South African delegation stood up and led the Group of 77 developing nations – except for a group of small island states – out of the room.”
Joanne Yawitch, a South African negotiator, said, “You can’t do a cut and paste on a ratified treaty. You have to reopen it and negotiate what you would cut and paste. And we think that the risks are that you might end up with something…considerably weaker.”
“The Kyoto Protocol binds 37 industrial countries – including Canada but not the United States – to reduce greenhouse gases by 5.2 per cent from 1990 levels by 2012.”
To read about the Council of Canadians climate justice campaign, please go to http://canadians.org/energy/issues/climatejustice/index.html.
The Toronto Star article is at http://www.thestar.com/mobile/news/canada/article/709146–canada-s-kyoto-view-triggers-a-walkout.
