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For release: August 22, 2007

Federal Government Fails to Comply with Kyoto Law,
Keeps Promise to Allow Greenhouse Gases to Rise

(Ottawa) – The federal government's first climate change plan, as required under Canada's Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act, fails to offer a credible plan to meet Kyoto and makes an increase in emissions in Canada an certainty, said the Climate Action Network Canada/Réseau action climat Canada (CAN-RAC). It is doubtful that the newly released plan-simply a re-packaging of the widely discredited one from April-will reduce greenhouse gas emissions at all.

“This report is an embarrassment to the majority of Canadians who are demanding real leadership from this government on climate change,” said Dale Marshall, David Suzuki Foundation. “Canadians deserve more than a 37-page excuse of why government is not willing to take appropriate action to help protect the future of Canadians and the planet,” he said.

The government has repeatedly stated that it does not intend to meet Canada's Kyoto target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In April, Environment Minister John Baird released a regulatory proposal that would see Canada's emissions remain above the 2008-2012 Kyoto target until sometime after 2020. In its first report under the new Act, entitled “A Climate Change Plan for the Purposes of the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act 2007”, the government demonstrates that its approach would leave Canada more than 30% above its 2008-2012 Kyoto target.

“This law is an accountability act for the climate,” said John Bennett, ClimateforChange, “Its purpose is to bring transparency and integrity to the climate change file so that citizens can assess whether their elected leaders are taking effective and timely action to avoid dangerous climate change. Now they know.”

The plan includes a list of emission-reduction actions that the government has already announced publicly, but does not add any new initiatives to counteract the growth in Canada's emissions. In addition, the plan's emission reduction projections lack clarity, as the document does not clearly specify the baseline from which reductions will occur.

"As in the previous plan, the big industrial polluters are getting a free ride by being asked to make intensity reductions rather than real, absolute reductions in their emissions. In other words, it is more of the same,” said Daniel Breton, Québec Vert Kyoto Coalition.

“The government's response to the Kyoto law is confused, unfocussed and illegal,” said Steven Guilbeault, Greenpeace Canada. “While the urgency of dealing with climate change has never been clearer, the government has chosen to hide behind a package of inadequate old announcements. This is simply unacceptable.”

The Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act, which became law on June 22, 2007, creates a legal obligation on the government to reach Canada's Kyoto target using regulations and other measures. All three opposition parties voted in support of the Act in the House of Commons. As a first step, the Act compels the environment minister to publish a credible plan to meet Canada's Kyoto target within two months the bill becoming law.

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