Canada withdraws from Kyoto protocol

By: Jay Alvin Co

After almost four years of rumors, Canada formally withdrew from the world's only existing legal treaty to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the Kyoto protocol on December 12, 2011.

Despite criticism from environmentalists and the international community, Canada’s stunning move is within its legal rights. Article 27 of the Kyoto protocol allows any country to withdraw three years after the protocol is in force. The protocol was ratified in 2005, but came into force on 1 January 2008, the start of the so-called first commitment period for countries to cut their emissions, which finishes at the end of 2012.  One of the criticisms was from China wherein the country has called the move “irresponsible.” In a statement, the environment minister of Canda, Peter Kent, said: "We are invoking our legal right to formally withdraw from Kyoto."

Canada also says the Kyoto protocol on climate change did not represent the way forward for Canada or the world.

Kent also claimed that Canada would have to pay billions to meet its Kyoto protocol target. Canada was meant to cut emissions by 6% by 2012 on 1990 levels, but instead they have risen by around a third. "To meet the targets under Kyoto for 2012 would be the equivalent of ... the transfer of $14bn (£8.7bn) from Canadian taxpayers to other countries – the equivalent of $1,600 from every Canadian family – with no impact on emissions or the environment," he said.

The $14bn figure appears to refer to the cost of Canada buying carbon emission permits from other Kyoto protocol countries so that Canada could – under the treaty's rules – meet its target. By withdrawing now, Canada would not have to spend that much cost.

If Canada had remained in the protocol, it could have avoided this cost another way: by simply not meeting its targets. If that happened, the protocol's compliance committee would begin a quasi-judicial procedure that would declare Canada "non-compliant". The committee would also give Canada a harder target for a second commitment period of the Kyoto protocol, taking into account how far it had missed the first period.

Canada's withdrawal is also a timely reminder that, while negotiators at the Durban climate conference burned the midnight oil over the weekend to agree on a form of words that should lead to a legally binding deal to cut emissions after 2020, there is no guarantee countries won't walk away from their commitments later down the line.