Conservative Leader Says Canada Might Miss Kyoto


HALIFAX - Canada will be unable to meet its commitments to reduce greenhouse gases under the Kyoto Protocol, the front-runner in the Canadian general election campaign said on Thursday.
"I've said for a long time that the Kyoto Protocol won't succeed in achieving its objectives and that this government, our Canadian government, can't achieve the objectives," Conservative leader Stephen Harper told reporters.
Harper, with a strong lead over Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin for the Jan. 23 election, did not say Canada would pull out as the United States had.
And he said he would not wait for a new agreement to be reached that brought in the biggest gas emitters, including the United States, China and India, but would instead work with the provinces to develop a new plan to limit Canadian emissions.
"We intend to collaborate with our provinces to develop a plan in Canada to get results," he said.
Kyoto was a hot topic early in the campaign when Martin suggested Washington did not have a global conscience for having pulled out of Kyoto - though in fact Canada's emissions have risen about twice as fast as those of the United States.