Canadian Environment Minister: "Canada Should Scrap Kyoto"

As greenhouse gas emission levels in Canada climb, Environment Minister Rona Ambrose says it's time for the federal government to scrap its Kyoto plan and think about something new...

Instead of reducing the levels of greenhouse gas emissions as specified under the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, Canada has seen an actual increase, she said.

Canadian emissions had been running about 24 per cent higher than the benchmark level. But Ms. Ambrose said that in Canada's next report to the United Nations the government is going to be in the embarrassing position of having to admit "we're getting close to being up by 30 per cent...

Ms. Ambrose said Canada is not the only country that agreed to the protocol on global warming in Kyoto, Japan, nine years ago only to find now that cutting greenhouse gases is a lot tougher than first thought.

The United States, which reneged on the original Kyoto deal, actually has a better track record cutting greenhouse gases than does Canada, Ms. Ambrose said.