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Environmental groups urge Canada to withdraw as chair of Bonn talks
By Michel Comte
AFP
OTTAWA
Petroleumworld.com 05 11 06
Environmental groups on Wednesday demanded that Canadian Environment Minister Rona Ambrose, who is hostile to the Kyoto Protocol, resign as chair of the upcoming international climate change talks in Bonn, Germany.
"It's hypocritical to chair a process that you don't want to be part of," said Dale Marshall of the David Suzuki Foundation.
"We're asking Minister Ambrose to step down because the international climate change process needs and deserves someone who will champion the Kyoto Protocol," he said on behalf of dozens of local environmental groups.
The protocol imposes CO2 reductions on industrialized countries.
The talks, which start on May 15 in Bonn, are the next phase in a series of international meetings aimed at reducing the impact of global warming caused by harmful greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide.
A spokesman for Ambrose told AFP she would not step down as president of the so-called COP 11 meeting.
John Bennett of the Climate Action Network noted: "The last thing the world needs is a chair that doesn't believe in the Kyoto negotiations it is facilitating."
In response, Ambrose renewed her criticisms of the accord in the House of Commons, saying it is wrong for big polluters such as China and India to have no targets imposed on them under the protocol.
"China and India within the Kyoto Protocol as members are considered developing countries, but China and India have booming economies and ... have increased global emissions. This is a great concern to us," she said.
"We think China and India should take on commitments."
Environmental groups said Ambrose's condemnation of the pact, other countries and the previous Liberal government's poor climate change results is a diversion meant to justify inaction by her government and soften support for the protocol.
"Her remarks have made it clear that the Canadian government has abandoned Kyoto," Bennett told reporters.
Ambrose has said she is working on a "made in Canada" plan that mimics US-style climate change programs -- Washington is also opposed to Kyoto -- but offered no details.
Last year, Canada was flagged in a UN report as high on a list of countries most likely to run into difficulty implementing commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.
On Wednesday, Ambrose told lawmakers Canada had increased its emissions by 35 percent from the base 1990 level, far from its 2012 target of a six percent reduction.
"To put that into perspective, we would have to take every train, plane and automobile off the streets in Canada (to meet our Kyoto commitments). That is not realistic," she said.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper echoed that view last month when he said it would be "impossible" for Canada to meet its Kyoto targets.
Meanwhile, his government cut funding for climate change programs in half in a recent budget -- deemed a "catastrophe" by environmentalists.
Pundits said Ottawa's hesitation to act is due to a robust economy, driven in large part by petroleum extraction, a big source of air pollutants, in Alberta province's vast oil sands, the world's second-largest oil deposit behind Saudi Arabia.
The province is also the Conservatives' political base.
Matthew Bramley of the Pembina Institute suggested Canada's oil patch could pay for its higher emissions by buying carbon credits, estimating it would cost about one US dollar per barrel of oil.
Extracting oil from the oil sands costs about 20 US dollars per barrel, while oil is currently selling at more than triple that rate, he said.
However, the Conservative government rejected the proposal.
AFP 05 10 06 2137 GMT
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