Canada has just been named as one of three countries working to kill the Kyoto Protocol at the climate talks now underway in Cancun. This afternoon, the Executive Secretary of the Conference of Parties (COP 16) Christina Figueres named Canada, Japan and Russia as countries working to block the second round of emission reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.

Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow asks, “We want to know why is Canada holding the knife that will kill Kyoto?”

Agence France Presse corroborates this in a report earlier this afternoon that states, “Japan on Monday said it would not support a second commitment period beyond 2012… Canada and Russia are also reluctant to sign up for an extension, say delegates.”

Reuters adds that, “Delegates from Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua said on Friday a number of unnamed developed countries had ruled out signing up to new emissions targets in a new round of the Kyoto Protocol after its current phase ends in 2012. Developing countries favor the Protocol, which makes a clear distinction between industrialized and emerging economies, while many developed countries prefer a new agreement which enshrines action by all major emitters. …The position of the developed countries was ‘unacceptable’, said Bolivia’s head of delegation Pablo Solon.”

Read the Council of Canadians’ media release at http://canadians.org/media/energy/2010/03-Dec-10.html.

Brent Patterson, Director of Campaigns and Communications, Council of Canadians
www.canadians.org

 

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Brent Patterson

Brent Patterson is a political activist, writer and the executive director of Peace Brigades International-Canada. He lives in Ottawa on the traditional, unceded and unsurrendered territories of the Algonquin...