Canada could face penalties under Kyoto Protocol

OTTAWA (CP) - Canada is liable to penalties and international censure for failing to respect its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, says a legal opinion made public Tuesday. A little-noted article in the Kyoto treaty required countries to show, by 2005, that they had made "demonstrable progress" in meeting their commitments under the protocol, but Canada has not done so.

"I conclude therefore that Canada is in current violation of Article 3.2 of the Kyoto Protocol," says the opinion, written for Friends of the Earth-Canada by Roda Verheyme, a German specialist in international law.

"Should Canada choose to remain a party to the protocol and also choose not to comply with its six per cent reduction targets, the enforcement branch of the Kyoto Protocol would have to apply legal consequences."

Under Kyoto, Canada is committed to cutting its greenhouse emissions six per cent from 1990 levels by 2008-2012.

Verheyme noted that actual emissions have risen 27 per cent since 1990, that measures to reverse the trend are lacking, and that the government is openly stating it can't meet the targets.

The Kyoto treaty does not provide fines for non-compliance, but Canada can be penalized with heavier emissions-cutting requirements in the next phase of the treaty.

Canada could be excluded from selling credits in the international emissions trading system, and required to put forward domestic policies to prove good faith.

But the main cost, perhaps, would be to Canada's international reputation.

"It would mean a branding of Canada as being in non-compliance," says Verheyme.

Bea Olivastri, CEO of Friends of the Earth, said the group is trying to force corrective action.

"What we've embarked on today is a very respectful but clear - something like tough love," she said. "We are not free to not act. We have a moral and a legal responsibility to act."

Robert Klager, a spokesman for Environment Minister Rona Ambrose, said he had not seen the legal opinion, but the Conservative government is taking the climate issue seriously and is looking for solutions "above and beyond Kyoto."

China and a group of developing countries have already lodged a complaint against a number of industrial countries, including Canada, for failing to file progress reports by Jan.1, 2006 as required.

Most of the countries named in the complaint have subsequently filed their reports, but Canada is one of six countries that haven't. Klager said he would check into the status of the missing report.

© The Canadian Press, 2006