Ottawa deals legal blow to troubled climate treaty
Canada became the first country to pull out of the troubled Kyoto protocol on Monday, Reuters reports. Environment Minister Peter Kent announced Ottawa’s formal withdrawal on his return from climate talks in Durban, South Africa, where countries agreed to extend the Kyoto treaty for another five years and negotiate a new global arrangement with binding rules for the all the world’s major polluters by 2015. “As we’ve said, Kyoto for Canada is in the past … We are invoking our legal right to formally withdraw from Kyoto,” Kent said. China’s Foreign Ministry called Canada’s decision to abandon the treaty “regrettable.”