[cdn-nucl-l] PM to Put Kyoto to Parliament by Year-End

["Adam McLean" <adam.mclean@utoronto.ca>]

Posted on Yahoo News on September 2, 2002 and at:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/fc?cid=34&tmpl=fc&in=World&cat=Global_Warmin
g
We may get it passed but I don't know how we're going to make the goals
without nuclear power.  See the Government of Canada's Kyoto page at:
http://www.climatechange.gc.ca/english/whats_new/overview_e.html

Adam

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PM to Put Kyoto to Parliament by Year-End
Mon Sep 2,12:11 PM ET
By Robin Pomeroy 

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Canada's parliament will vote on ratifying the
Kyoto climate change pact by the end of the year, Prime Minister Jean
Chretien said in a surprise announcement to the Earth Summit on Monday. 

If parliament approves the pact, which was rejected by the United States
last year, and if Russia also ratifies, as it has said it intends to do,
the treaty on cutting "greenhouse gas" emissions blamed for contributing
to global warming ( news - web sites) will have enough backers to come
into legal force. 

"Before the end of the year, the Canadian parliament will be asked to
vote on the ratification of the Kyoto accord," Chretien told the World
Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). 

The move surprised and delighted environmentalists as Canada has often
worked closely with the United States on global environmental issues. 

"It has split the North American bloc on Kyoto. Canada has joined the
rest of the world and left the United States behind," said Jennifer
Morgan of WWF. 

Steven Guilbeault, a Canadian WWF campaigner, said he expected
parliament to approve the pact. "If there was a vote tomorrow morning it
would go through," he said. 

One hundred Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois, the New Democratic Party,
have said they supported Kyoto, he said. 

U.S. President George W. Bush ( news - web sites) threw the pact into
doubt when he pulled out of the Kyoto treaty last year. 

To come into force, Kyoto must be ratified by developed countries
responsible for 55 percent of 1990 carbon dioxide emissions. The United
States emitted one third of that total. 

But since the U.S. pullout, momentum has gathered to push ahead, with
the European Union ( news - web sites) leading diplomatic efforts to
keep the pact alive. 

If it ratifies the pact, Canada will have until 2012 to cut emissions
from power generation, transport and other sectors by six percent from
1990 levels. Latest estimates show Canada's emissions had risen 20
percent by 2000. 

The U.S. position is that Kyoto would harm its economy, but it has said
it would not try to prevent others from going ahead. 

"The U.S. position is we are not trying to discourage other countries
from ratifying the Kyoto Protocol ( news - web sites)," Robert Card,
undersecretary at the U.S. department of energy ( news - web sites) told
Reuters on the sidelines of the WSSD. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin ( news - web sites) has indicated he
wants the State Duma parliament to ratify Kyoto after the summer. 

Under Kyoto, developed countries agreed individual targets for cutting
emissions, aiming to achieve a 5.2 percent reduction of 1990 levels by
2012.