Environment minister tells UN conference Kyoto is being used to divide Canada

NAIROBI, Kenya (CP) - The Kyoto Protocol is being used to divide Canada, Environment Minister Rona Ambrose told the UN Climate Conference in a speech that outraged environmentalists and opposition critics.


Addressing delegates from some 180 countries, Ambrose blamed the previous government for Canada's poor performance in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. She suggested the Conservatives have taken a leap forward with their Clean Air Act, although all three opposition parties have said they cannot pass the bill in its current form.


"There are some who are using the Kyoto Protocol to create divisions within our country, but we will not let that happen," Ambrose said. "Canada has one target and we all share the responsibility to work together to fulfil our obligations."


She did not mention that the Conservative government has rejected Canada's current target under the Kyoto Protocol as unachievable, and has yet to name a new one.


"When Canada's new government assumed office this year, we found an unacceptable situation," she said. "We found that measures to address climate change by previous Canadian governments were insufficient and unaccountable.


"Years after signing and ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, Canada still had not implemented a domestic plan to address climate change."


Environmentalists and critics from all three opposition parties said it was inappropriate to use the UN conference for partisan purposes, and accused the minister of factual inaccuracies.


Liberal environment critic John Godfrey noted that the Liberals announced their $10-billion Project Green in April 2005, and were beginning to implement it at the time of their defeat.


"It's outrageous when she uses an international conference to attack the Liberals in a most inaccurate way," said Godfrey.


"She said we had no plan. We had a plan and we had programs yielding results. We had the EnerGuide program which had already retrofitted 70,000 houses; we had doubled the amount of wind power production in 2005."


Those programs have been cancelled, he noted.


NDP environment critic Nathan Cullen said he was shown parts of Ambrose's speech in advance, and they included a reference to the government's collaboration with the NDP. Cullen said the reference was dropped at his insistence.


"They're trying to wrap themselves in our good name when it comes to the environment," Cullen said.


The Clean Air Act was saved from defeat in the Commons when NDP Leader Jack Layton agreed to send the bill to a committee. But Cullen said his party sees the bill as fundamentally flawed, and will not accept anything less than a complete rewrite.


"She travelled many thousands of miles to deliver a speech that contains many things that simply are not true," said Cullen. "We knew the Liberal record was bad, to say the Conservatives are going to make it better is simply untrue."


There were reports that Ambrose had a deal with Environment Minister Claude Bechard whereby he would mute his criticism of the Conservatives if she mentioned Quebec's climate plan at the conference.


But she did not mention Quebec's plan and he made no secret of his disappointment.

"We are really proud of our plan in Quebec. I think all Canadians should be proud of our plan."

He said the Conservative position on climate control remains ambiguous. "We still don't know clearly whether Canada is for Kyoto or not. They say it's a good thing but they are saying at the same time it's tough to achieve the targets."

He said the climate treaty should bring Canadians together, rather than divide them.

Bloc Quebecois environment critic Bernard Bigras said Ambrose seemed to be basing her promises of progress on the Clean Air Act, but opposition parties won't pass the bill unless it contains clear commitments to the Kyoto Protocol.

"It's very important to say the reality. I think she doesn't want to respect the targets and it's clear today."

Ambrose seemed to suggest that the government still has its eye firmly on the Kyoto target: a six per cent cut in emissions from 1990 levels by 2012.

Some parts of Ambrose's speech seemed to go farther than her previous statements in support for Kyoto.

"Our plan also recognizes the need for urgent action so that we can finally make progress towards our 2012 international obligations."

When the Conservatives were in opposition they denied that climate change was a problem and attacked the Liberals for having signed the Kyoto treaty at all.

But Matthew Bramley of the Pembina Institute said he was not sure what Ambrose meant.

"Which obligations? Are you saying you are going to do everything you possibly can to meet the target or are you talking about something else?"

Questioned on the point later by reporters, Ambrose said: "It means the urgency to set in place our short-term targets which is why we are presently negotiating with industry sectors as we speak, to get those targets in place."

Bramley said it was jarring to hear a partisan political speech at an international forum like the climate conference. But Ambrose accused the opposition parties of being partisan.

One veteran activist said she could not speak because she was too angry.