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Canada will meet Kyoto emissions targets, PM says

Posted on: Thursday, 8 December 2005, 03:06 CST

MONTREAL (Reuters) - Canada will meet 2012 goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions under the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol even though the country is far above target, Prime Minister Paul Martin said at a U.N. conference on Wednesday.

U.N. data showed that Canada's emissions of greenhouse gases are running 24.4 percent above 1990 levels even though the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol binds Canada to cutting its emissions by six percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.

"We're going to hit our Kyoto targets," he told a news conference after a speech to more than 90 environment ministers meeting in Montreal to discuss new ways to fight climate change.

He said Canada was one of few oil and gas producing countries in the Kyoto Protocol. Emissions from burning fossil fuels are widely blamed for blanketing the planet and driving up temperatures, threatening wrenching disruptions to the climate.

But he said that Ottawa was making progress on cleaning up emissions and was developing new technologies including ways to bury carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas.

"Our record on combating climate change was far from perfect in the 1990s," said Martin, who faces an election in January after losing a vote of confidence last week, 17 months into his term.

"But now we are investing billions in progressive, effective initiatives as we work toward our Kyoto commitments," he said.

Some Canadian reporters faulted Martin for using a plane with a high use of fuel on his campaign trips.

"I'm not in a position to comment on the fuel use of a plane," he said, and questioned whether reporters would prefer to travel vast distances across Canada by bus.

Source: REUTERS

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