The Kyoto accord on climate change is on life support, but the “son of Kyoto” lives.
Negotiations involving more than 180 countries ended in The Hague, Netherlands, on the weekend without an agreement on implementing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slow global warming.
But the talks were suspended — not concluded. They are tentatively scheduled to resume in May in Bonn, Germany.
“Regardless of what happened at The Hague, we (in industry) still are going to call this a top priority issue for the government . . .,” said Neil Shelly, director of environmental affairs for the Alberta Forest Products Association.
Robert Hornung of the Pembina Institute, an Alberta-based environmental research watchdog group, said the risk is that the momentum for a deal will be lost.
The policy uncertainty over Kyoto that existed in Canada prior to the talks collapsing “may have gotten worse, which is bad news for private sector people trying to manage this issue. It’s bad news in terms of securing further government actions,” Hornung said.
But Bob Page, TransAlta Utilities’ vice-president of sustainable development, who participated in negotiations at The Hague, said the U.S.-led umbrella group, which includes Canada, needs more time to negotiate a “Kyoto-style” agreement.
Environmental activists and the European Union blamed Canada and the umbrella group for wanting to use “flexibility mechanisms” under Kyoto, to make up the bulk of their domestic emission reductions.
To get a deal next spring, the U.S.-led group will have to drop demands to get full credits at home for the greenhouse gases soaked up by forests and agricultural soils and for projects done in developing countries, environmentalists said.
