EDMONTON (CP) - Canada should forget Kyoto and work with the United States and Mexico to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, says Alberta Energy Minister Murray Smith.
Opposition by G-8 European countries over the weekend to Canada's proposal for clean-fuel credits will make it almost impossible for Ottawa to endorse the Kyoto accord, Smith said Monday. Such credits would stem from cleaner natural gas and electricity exports to the United States that would reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions Canada would have to make under Kyoto.
"The fat lady has sung," Smith said in an interview.
"Let's get on with a North American solution to this where we do business. Canada does not fit within the framework of the Kyoto protocol."
Smith said Alberta is working on a proposal for an emission trading system that would work within the boundaries of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Such a plan would work well because it would build on existing trade relationships and recognize the fact that the U.S. - which produces about 25 per cent of world carbon dioxide emissions - steadfastly opposes Kyoto, he said.
Alberta will present its plan to a joint meeting of federal and provincial energy and environment ministers set for May 22 in Charlottetown.
"There is a real win in trade and in exports in establishing an additional value to what we trade in clean fuels with the United States," he said. "If we are going to do emissions trading, let's do it through NAFTA."
The Kyoto accord calls for 40 industrialized countries to make sharp reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2012.
Such emissions are believed to cause global warming along with climate shifts, droughts and other environmental catastrophes.
The U.S. won't ratify Kyoto because Washington believes implementing the plan would hurt its economy.
Alberta's action plan will take into account the fact that the United States is the biggest buyer of Canada's energy exports, said Environment Minister Lorne Taylor.
Neither Taylor or Smith would reveal details of the plan.
"We have to have a model that includes the U.S. because they are our greatest trade partner and they aren't signatories of Kyoto," Taylor said.
"Ottawa must look at the Alberta action plan and the North American approach as opposed to Kyoto."
Alberta's push for a different agreement appeared to take federal Environment Minister David Anderson by surprise in Parliament on Monday.
During question period, Canadian Alliance MP Dave Chatters called on Anderson to acknowledge that it is time for Ottawa to abandon Kyoto in favour of a made-in-Canada solution to reducing greenhouse gases.
Anderson said he still intends to present a formal proposal on clean energy export credits next month at a United Nations meeting in Whistler, B.C.
"The province of Alberta is at one with the Government of Canada in seeking to obtain clean energy export credits," Anderson said.
"That is a matter of record which . . . Lorne Taylor repeated last weekend when he was with me at a dinner of the G-8 ministers."
Prime Minister Jean Chretien repeated Monday his support for the Kyoto agreement.
"Kyoto is very important and we would like to sign it as soon as possible," Chretien told the Commons on Monday.
Business groups have been lobbying against Kyoto in its present form, arguing the deal will cost thousands of jobs and billions of dollars.
Alberta's push for a made-in-Canada approach underlines the problems of ratifying the accord in its current form, said Pierre Alvarez, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
"How do you make a domestic Canadian climate change policy operate to meet international obligations while at the same time operating in a continental energy market where none of the other countries have targets to reduce emissions?" he said from Calgary.
"Fifty per cent of our production goes to the United States."
CAPP represents 150 companies that are responsible for 97 per cent of Canada's oil and natural gas production.
Other energy experts, such as Andre Plourde of the University of Alberta business faculty, said the Alberta government is being prudent by preparing an alternative plan.
The province has to do more than just criticize Kyoto, he said.
"You have to have a way of convincing Canadians and Albertans and people around the world that you are serious about this problem and you are willing to do things," he said.
"Alberta at this stage cannot just say no, Alberta must say 'no, and here is the alternative.' "
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