12 December 2011: The Government of Canada has announced its formal withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol. In a statement delivered in the Canadian House of Commons, Peter Kent, Canadian Minister for the Environment, stated that “we are invoking our legal right to formally withdraw from Kyoto. This decision formalizes what we have said since 2006 that we will not implement the Kyoto Protocol.”

Noting that, at the outset the Kyoto Protocol “did not represent the path forward for Canada,” he underscored that because the treaty does not commit the two largest emitters, namely the US and China, to any emissions reductions, it “will not work.” He referred to the Durban Platform, which was adopted at the recently-concluded Durban Climate Change Conference in South Africa, as “a way forward that builds on our work at Copenhagen and Cancun.” Kent added that Canada will work towards a legally binding agreement on climate change that “allows us to continue creating jobs and economic growth in Canada” and said it is well on its way “to meeting the commitment we made in Copenhagen by reducing green house gas emissions by 17 per cent over 2005 levels by 2020.” [Statement by Canadian Minister for the Environment Kent]