Canada’s decision is not completely unexpected, as the conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has long issued concerns that Kyoto’s emissions rules apply only to developed nations, leaving big polluters like India and China the option to take voluntary non-binding steps to curb the growth of their own emissions.
This distinction in the Protocol between rich nations and developing ones, responds to the reasoning that developed nations have been polluting the planet for long time, in some cases more than two centuries, while countries like China and India, while big polluters right now, their share of the global responsibility is minor, as they just started their industrialization process a few decades ago.
© Elizabeth Ruiz / Greenpeace
On one of the first drafts of the Climate Conference that just took place in Durban, South Africa, the text called for a new treaty that would take effect in all countries “after 2020”. Canada accused China of being responsible for that reference, asking a new treaty for all countries by 2015. Even while 5 years seems a pity difference, that was enough for Canada to pull out of the agreement.
Canada’s announcement has been disappointing and widely criticized around the world, and inside Canada, as the country keeps sliding towards the conservative agenda of its government. An agenda that includes recent legislation forcing Muslim women to remove their veil while taking the citizenship oath, the elimination of a national gun registry and the controversial tar sands.
Tar Sands - Copyright
On the other hand, Mexico’s President, Felipe Calderón asked the General Secretary of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon to intervene to convince the United states and Saudi Arabia to approve the Green Fund.
The Green Climate fund is a Mexico proposal that would transfer as much as $100 billion annually from rich nations to developing nations, directed at helping them to curb their carbon emission investing on green technologies.
The idea of the Green Fund was well received by the international community, but the US has been blocking it, as with many other climate initiatives.
Even when the head of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon said at Durban that “the future of our planet is at risk” and there is a sense of urgency among developing countries and significantly, the European Union, few countries keep blocking real advancements on the global effort to fight climate change.
The Durban conference ended on Sunday with a last-ditch deal whereby developed and developing countries will for the first time work on an agreement that should be legally binding on all parties, to be written by 2015 and to come into force after 2020.
Related notes:
- Bolivia Set to Pass Historic 'Law of Mother Earth' Which Will Grant Nature Equal Rights to Humans
- Following Examples Set by Ecuador and Bolivia, Turkey is Considering Ecological Constitution
- Is Progress a Right?
