OTTAWA -- Canada is lobbying other countries for a huge break, as much as 30 per cent, on the greenhouse-gas cuts it needs to make to meet targets under the Kyoto protocol.
Ottawa says Canada deserves this credit for exporting "clean energy" such as natural gas and hydroelectricity to the United States, displacing dirtier fuel such as coal that otherwise would be used.
Environment Minister David Anderson confirmed yesterday that Canada is seeking Kyoto credits equivalent to as much as 70 megatonnes of greenhouse gas reductions for exporting natural gas and clean power. That's about 30 per cent of the 240 megatonnes in emission reductions this country would need by 2012 if it ratifies the agreement.
Canada is expected to press the issue at a meeting on clean energy credits with other Kyoto-accord countries in Whistler, B.C., in May.
Environmentalists say it's a sham for Canada to seek climate-change credits for something that it was already doing before the 1997 protocol and that makes no special effort to fight global warming.
"I think it is dishonest," Greenpeace climate-change campaigner Steven Guilbeault said.
Getting all those clean energy credits would lighten the load on sectors such as the oil patch if Canada ratifies the protocol. To reach its targets, large greenhouse-gas emitters and Ottawa will likely have to spend billions.
John Bennett, director of atmosphere and energy for the Sierra Club of Canada, said Canada's campaign to get dubious credits threatens to erode the accord's value.
"By doing these kind of things to placate industry leaders, they are going to destroy public faith in the value of it," he said.
Ottawa is coming under increasing pressure from business groups and provinces to detail how it will reduce Canada's greenhouse gas emissions under the 1997 protocol, an international deal to fight climate change that the Chrétien government hopes to ratify.
Environmentalists suggest Canada is using uncertainty about its position to extract more concessions from signatories such as the European Union.
"Canada is still playing hardball with the European Union in an attempt to get a better arrangement for Canada's oil patch," Mr. Bennett said.
The pact cannot come into force unless 55 countries that collectively produce 55 per cent of the developed world's carbon dioxide emissions ratify it. The refusal of the United States to endorse the agreement makes the backing of remaining large signatories crucial.
But Canada has backed away from earlier pledges to ratify it as early as June, sowing doubt whether major emitters such as Japan and Russia will ratify it. Their refusal to do so could kill the pact.
"There is a concern that Canada could start a cascading effect," Mr. Bennett said.
The accord was negotiated in Japan by 150 countries and requires signatories to cut emissions of global-warming gases about 6 per cent from 1990 levels by 2012.
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