Canada said on Tuesday that it will withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, making it the first nation to do so.
“We are invoking Canada’s legal right to formally withdraw from Kyoto,” Environment Minister Peter Kent told reporters, according to the Toronto Star.
Kent noted that Canada’s “decision formalizes what we’ve said since 2006—that we will not implement the Kyoto Protocol,” according to the newspaper.
The protocol, which was approved by nearly every nation in the world except for the United States in 1997, is “not the path forward for a global solution to climate change,” Kent said, the Vancouver Sun reported.
The Kyoto Protocol mandates that industrialized nations reduce greenhouse gas emissions to below 1990 levels.
Kent said Canada’s decision to pull out of the protocol will save the country $14 billion in penalty fees, or $1,600 for each family, and said it would not impact the environment.
Canadian Member of Parliament Megan Leslie, said Kent’s price tags are not accurate and that the government was pulling out instead of working to meet the Kyoto standards.
“It’s like we’re the kid in school who knows they’re gonna fail the class, so we have to drop it before that actually happens,” Leslie said, according to The Star.
