Quebec petition urges Ottawa to act on Kyoto

(CBC) - Sovereigntist politicians went underground in the Montreal area on Tuesday morning, heading into subway stations to gather signatures on a petition that asks the federal government to honour the Kyoto Protocol.

The Bloc Québécois and Parti Québécois members - who were to include provincial legislators Daniel Turp and Lousie Harel from the PQ and Bloc MPs Bernard Bigras and Réal Ménard - were among those going to different metro stations.

They were armed with a petition that asks Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservatives to backtrack on their decision to abandon some of the objectives outlined the 1998 protocol aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions around the world.

The petition is to be submitted to the House of Commons.

Since winning the January parliamentary election, the Tories have distanced themselves from Kyoto, which was signed on Canada's behalf by a former Liberal government over the objections of the Conservative opposition.

Federal Environment Minister Rona Ambrose recently said she doesn't think Canada can meet its commitments under the international agreement without hurting its economy.

The accord, adopted in 1997 after being agreed to by 146 countries, requires Canada to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to six per cent below 1990 levels by 2012.

Meanwhile, reports say Quebec wants to band together with Ontario and Manitoba to press Ottawa for money for the provinces to try to meet Kyoto Protocol objectives on their own.

On June 15, Quebec's Liberal government announced it will charge a royalty on petroleum products in an effort to combat greenhouse gas emissions.

The $200-million-a-year generated by the tax will go into a green fund to fight climate change.

It is one of 24 measures announced by the province as part of a plan called Quebec and Climate Change - A Challenge for the Future.

Premier Jean Charest and his government say the plan will cut Quebec's greenhouse gas emissions to levels just short of the targets in the Kyoto Protocol.

The plan is ambitious: reduce greenhouse gases in Quebec by 10 million tonnes a year by 2012.

© the CBC, 2006