Good news, although not really a surprise in view of recent comments by Environment Minister Rona Ambrose.  The story in this morning’s Globe and Mail is based on a leaked report of “private instructions to Canadian negotiators”, so this should probably be taken with a grain of salt.  But, as I say, it sounds credible because consistent with the thrust of recent government statements.

Canada will not support attempts by other countries to set deeper emission-reduction targets for the Kyoto Protocol's second phase, according to private instructions to Canadian negotiators in Bonn, Germany.

The instructions obtained by The Globe and Mail also show that Canada wants the climate-change accord phased out in favour of a separate, voluntary deal.

Ottawa's public submission to United Nations talks in Bonn on the Kyoto Protocol last week indicated Canada wants more lenient targets for itself. The private instructions from the Foreign Affairs Department to the Canadian delegation show Canada will also oppose the widely held view that targets in the second phase, which begins after 2012, should be tougher than those in the first phase.

Another sensible position taken in the leaked report is that international agreements to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are pointless unless the biggest GHG producers sign on.

The paper also shows that Canada is threatening to pull out of the UN climate-change process unless it includes the United States and all other major polluters.
. . .
“Canada does not support a continuation of the status quo beyond 2012, and has no preconceived view on how a new commitment period might be structured.”

The paper says, however, a new agreement “must include the USA and all major developing country emitters and allow for different types of commitments based on national circumstances. Canada would ideally like to see the two tracks related to the future converge into a single inclusive and effective approach and believes the Convention Dialogue has more potential for this.”

It gets even better.  Canada supports assessing recent strategies implemented to reduce climate change in order to see what’s working and what isn’t.

The instructions show that rather than looking to the post-2012 phase, Canada's position is that the working group must spend “at least two years” focused on past actions by the involved countries to determine what is working and what is not, and that it will not support any measures beyond that.

Evidence.  What a concept!

The usual suspects are outraged, if not unhinged.  A representative of Greenpeace attending the Bonn conference says the leaked instructions constitute “a serious diplomatic incident”.  NDP leader Jack Layton likened the instructions to rolling a live grenade into the negotiations.  No hyperbole there at all.

As long as the United States, Australia, and the entire developing world aren’t included in Kyoto, it’s not going to have any discernible impact on the global climate.  Moreover, it is now abundantly clear that Canada cannot possibly meet its Kyoto target.  Rona Ambrose is only doing her job by pursuing alternative approaches.

Ms. Ambrose also confirmed that she has asked her department to consider what it would mean for Canada to become the seventh country in the Asia-Pacific partnership on climate change, but she insisted the partnership is not an alternative to the Kyoto Protocol.

Got that right, too.  Japan has signed on to both Kyoto and the Asia-Pacific partnership.

Previous related posts: