Canadian Environmental Minister Peter Kent said Canada would not support another commitment under the Kyoto Protocol.
“We have long said we will not take on a second commitment under the Kyoto Protocol. We will not obstruct or discourage those that do, but Kyoto for Canada is in the past,” Kent said in a speech at the United Nations climate summit in Durban, South Africa, reported AFP.
The 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which is the only international agreement on greenhouse gas emissions, expires in 2012. The international community has failed to reach accord on another treaty to replace it.
“It is an agreement that covers fewer than 30 percent of global emissions, by some estimates 15 percent or less,” Kent said, according to the news agency.
Canadian Climate Change ambassador Guy Saint-Jacques said his delegation hopes there will be a “new round of negotiations” ahead of the collapse of the Kyoto Protocol, according to the Calgary Herald.
