Canada takes swipe at EU after Kyoto showdown

11.00am

OTTAWA - Canada has accused the European Union of behaving in a bizarre manner by rejecting Ottawa's plea for a further dilution of the already troubled Kyoto protocol on global warming.

The Canadian government, under heavy pressure from energy producers to follow the United States' lead and abandon the 1997 protocol, last year persuaded its partners to change the Kyoto Protocol to give Canada credit for carbon dioxide absorbed by forests.

However, the EU's patience snapped at a weekend meeting of Group of Eight environment ministers in Banff, Alberta, when Canadian Environment Minister David Anderson told them that Canada wanted another change to give it credit for clean energy exports to the United States.

"There is something bizarre about a European position as expressed by the European Union that measures to reduce greenhouse gases should be opposed by the very people who are sitting around the table discussing how to reduce greenhouse gases," Anderson told reporters on Tuesday.

The EU says the Canadian idea is badly thought out and will not work because of the decision by US President George W Bush to abandon Kyoto a year ago.

However, Anderson said Canada -- which is the single largest supplier of energy to the power-hungry United States -- would formally present the clean energy credits proposal to a meeting of experts in British Columbia next month.

"Our references to clean energy exports are something that must be taken seriously and looked at in principle. It is also somewhat strange that it would be rejected out of hand before we have put forward our formal proposal," Anderson said.

"I just again suggest the Europeans are not looking yet at what this can do to improve the environment by reducing greenhouse gases," he added, saying Canada still wanted to ratify Kyoto.

Sceptics note the Canadian government is deeply divided over whether to ratify Kyoto and wonder whether Anderson is deliberately pushing an idea he knows is unacceptable as a way of effectively ditching the treaty.

"We wish to ratify in 2002...that remains unchanged and we luckily have about 240 days to go this year, so we're going to have to work quite hard," Anderson said.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien also declined to be any more specific when pressed.

"The goal of the government is to ratify Kyoto -- eventually -- when we're ready and we're not ready today," he told reporters.

Canada's most obvious quandary is that it has little chance of fulfilling its Kyoto commitment to cut emissions of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming by 6 per cent from 1990 levels by 2010. Latest estimates show that Canada's emissions actually grew by 20 per cent from 1990 to 2000.

Energy producers and some powerful Canadian provinces say that ratifying Kyoto will cost tens of billions of dollars and countless jobs.

- REUTERS

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