Earlier this week, just hours after returning from the international climate control talks in Durban, Canada's Environment Minister Peter Kent said Ottawa would be withdrawing from the binding Kyoto Treaty. Since then, Canada has come under intense international criticism for abandoning the 1997 pact ratified and supported by Ottawa's previous Liberal governments.
Under the leadership of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canada has taken a right turn, opting to shun its traditional role as a moderate soft power on the world stage. The reality is that while Canada has a legal obligation to lower its carbon emissions — it is 30 per cent over the targets allowed by Kyoto — and the Harper government had never any intention of paying for the credits it needed to meet its international obligations. Better then, Ottawa reasons, to simply ignore and opt out.
Canada's tar sands provide a heavy and dirty oil, high in costs to produce, and damaging to the environment. With Harper's political base strongly linked to the fortunes of Alberta and its tar sands, the current Ottawa administration was never going to be a supporter of Kyoto — or of any other climate process for the foreseeable future. So much for Canada's worries over the lack of ice for its polar bears.
