The expected ascension of the Conservative Party in Canada’s national election today will likely spell the end of the only North American commitment to reduce emissions that cause climate change.
Conservative Stephen Harper, favored to defeat Prime Minister Paul Martin whose Liberal Party has run Canada for 13 years, has said he would retract Canada’s pledge under the Kyoto Treaty to cut greenhouse gases 6 percent from 1990 levels by 2012. Canada made the commitment when it ratified the Kyoto Treaty in 2002.
Harper says Canada will remain a Kyoto signatory if he takes over, but since the nation is actually increasing emissions these days and cannot meet its Kyoto target, his administration will develop a new plan that emphasizes voluntary reductions.
That would put Canada in line with the United States, which has not signed the Kyoto Treaty and has made no commitments to cut greenhouse gases. President Bush, too, is depending on industries to voluntarily develop new technologies that limit emissions.
Mexico has signed the Kyoto Treaty, but as a developing nation it is not required to commit to reductions.
Ironically, though climate change was not an especially hot topic in the Canadian election campaign, voters were going to the polls today in temperatures well above freezing in a country that’s usually buried in snow and ice at this time of year. The temperature in Toronto this afternoon was 4 degrees C (39 degrees F) after a balmy weekend when it soared to 12 C (54 F).
