Nations to discuss post-Kyoto plan

CTVNEWS

Canada among nations discussing post-Kyoto plan

CTV.ca News Staff Published Thursday, September 27, 2007 12:58PM EDT

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Canada is among the world's major economies meeting this week to discuss a post-Kyoto plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and battle climate change.

The Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change is being hosted by the U.S. and held in Washington.

Sixteen nations, including Canada, France, Germany, Britain and Japan, are taking part in the Thursday and Friday talks, along with delegates representing the European Union and the United Nations.

Environment Minister John Baird is representing Canada at the meeting, and is expected to echo Prime Minister Stephen Harper's message that greenhouse gas reductions should be intensity based, or linked to production levels.

The Conservative government maintains that firm emissions caps don't work in poorer economies -- a position that has been panned by environmentalists who say major changes are required right away to stem climate change.

The goal of the Washington meeting is to reach agreement on a process that would guide members towards a plan of action to be implemented when the Kyoto Protocol on climate change expires in 2012.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice opened the meeting Thursday, saying the goal is to support and accelerate the United Nations' climate change efforts.

Critics have suggested the meeting is attempting to go around the UN process, but Rice said the U.S. "supports the goals" set out by a UN climate meeting in Indonesia earlier in the week and wants those efforts to succeed.

She also called on the world's biggest polluters to wean themselves off of fossil fuels and shift towards fuels that will reduce the speed of climate change.

She said all countries should tackle climate change in their own way, but the status quo is not an option.

Ahead of the U.S.-hosted meetings, the White House said it hoped to have a consensus-reaching process in place by the end of 2008.

"At this meeting, we would seek agreement on the process by which the major economies would, by the end of 2008, agree upon a post-2012 framework that could include a long-term global goal, nationally defined mid-term goals and strategies, and sector-based approaches for improving energy security and reducing greenhouse gas emissions," U.S. President George Bush said in an official invitation to leaders.

He said the gathering, which will be hosted by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, will also focus on how major economies can develop and implement clean energy technologies, which he described as "a critical component of an effective global approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions."

Bush will address the delegates at the meetings.

Critics say the U.S. has little credibility on environmental issues, since it, along with Australia, has failed to ratify the Kyoto climate change plan. Canada ratified Kyoto in 2002, but last year the Conservative government announced that emissions-reduction goals committed to under Kyoto were impossible to meet.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently pushed a flexible, balanced approach to tackling global warming.

Speaking early in the week at a gathering of about 80 world leaders at UN headquarters in New York, Harper said there's an emerging consensus on the need for a framework to implement when Kyoto expires.

He also said the replacement plan must be endorsed by all major emitters of greenhouse gases, including developing nations such as China and India.

Following is a list of countries or organizations that will attend the meetings later this week: