Canada and The Kyoto Protocol - Canada and Kyoto: A Timeline

Canada and Kyoto: A Timeline

• December 13, 2011: Canada became the first signatory to announce its withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol.

• 2009: Canada signed the Copenhagen Accord. Unlike the Kyoto Accord this is non-binding agreement. Canada agreed to reduce its GHG emissions by 17% from its 2005 levels by 2020 translates to 607 Megatonnes (Mt).

• February 2009: The (CED) was established between Canada and the United States "to enhance joint collaboration on the development of clean energy science and technologies to reduce greenhouse gases and combat climate change".

• December 3–15, 2007: At the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia Environment Minister John Baird argued that Canada would not attempt to reach its Kyoto targets because it was impossible to reach them. Baird was heavily criticized for impeding progress on 'the Bali Action Plan'.

• 2007: The Canadian federal government introduced the Clean Air Act.

• January 2006: Harper's Conservative government took power. Prime Minister Stephen Harper had abandoned Canada's Kyoto obligations in favour of his "Made in Canada" plan. In the first year GHG emissions rose to an all-time high of 748 Mt.

• 2004: The federal government launched the One Tonne Challenge.

• December 17, 2002: Canada officially ratified the Kyoto Accord under Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's Liberal government.

• 2001: The United States did not ratify the Kyoto Accord leaving Canada as the only nation in the Americas with a binding emissions-reduction obligation.

• 2000: The federal government introduced the Action Plan 2000 on Climate Change.

• 1980: Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau introduced the controversial energy policy, the National Energy Program (NEP). Tim Flannery, author of the influential book entitled The Weathermakers, argued that since the NEP, with its tidal wave of a negative western response, which nearly tore the country apart, no federal government—Liberal or Conservative—has been brave enough to forge a new energy policy.