Canada faces Kyoto probe over lack of greenhouse-gas reporting
OTTAWA — Canada could be barred from international carbon trading if a United Nations investigation finds it broke Kyoto Protocol rules for greenhouse-gas reporting.
A statement posted on the UN Climate Change Secretariat's website says Canada was officially told May 5 it would be investigated for allegedly violating a Kyoto reporting requirement. Canada and other Kyoto signatories are obliged to keep a national registry of greenhouse-gases. The registry tracks holdings of greenhouse gas credits and shows compliance with the emissions targets.
Canada was warned last month it risked scrutiny for missing a Jan. 1, 2007, reporting deadline by more than two months.
"The enforcement branch decided, after a preliminary examination, to proceed with a question of implementation with respect to Canada," the statement says.
The Kyoto compliance committee, an independent body of legal experts, will meet in late May or mid-June to consider Canada's case.
The committee could decide to drop the case or to release a preliminary finding. If it finds Canada did not comply with its Kyoto reporting requirements, it could:
-Publicly declare Canada in non-compliance
-Force Canada to submit an action within three months for getting back into compliance
-Suspend Canada's right to trade in the Kyoto carbon market
There are no financial penalties for failing to comply with Kyoto rules. But such a finding would make Canada the second country after Greece to be found in breach of the rules.
The committee suspended Greece last month from the carbon trading market.
Since Canada doesn't participate in any of Kyoto's emissions credits or carbon trading programs, a similar ruling in this instance would be symbolic.
A spokesman from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change referred questions to the chair of the compliance committee, who did not immediately reply to questions e-mailed to him.
Environmental groups say the UN probe shows the Conservative government doesn't take its international commitments seriously.
"What's really the point here is that this government doesn't think it's important to play by the international rules," says John Bennett, executive director of Climate for Change.
Canada is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, which binds 37 developed nations to cut emissions by an average of five per cent below 1990 levels by 2008-2012.
The Conservatives say the Kyoto targets are unattainable and have committed to cut emissions by 20 per cent below 2006 levels by 2020.
Canada's greenhouse-gas emissions were 25 per cent above the 1990 level in 2005 and the federal government says it doesn't plan to make up the Kyoto shortfall by trading with other countries.
A spokesman for John Baird says the environment minister would address the issue outside the House of Commons after question period.
