Australia's Minister for Climate Change Greg Combet (L) speaks with Canada's Environment Minister Peter Kent during a break in plenary session at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP17) in Durban December 10, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Rogan WardLONDON | Tue Dec 13, 2011 12:46pm EST
LONDON (Reuters) - Canada still has a legal obligation under U.N. rules to cut its emissions despite the country's pullout from the Kyoto Protocol, the U.N. climate chief said Tuesday.
Christiana Figueres also said the timing of Canada's move, a day after a deal to extend it was clinched at a U.N. summit in South Africa, was both regrettable and surprising.
Canada Monday withdraw from Kyoto, dealing a symbolic blow to the treaty, with environment minister Peter Kent breaking the news just after his return from talks in Durban.
"Whether or not Canada is a party to the Kyoto Protocol, it has a legal obligation under the (U.N. framework on climate change) convention to reduce its emissions, and a moral obligation to itself and future generations to lead in the global effort," Figueres said.
Canada, a major energy producer which critics say is becoming a climate renegade, has long complained Kyoto is unworkable because it excludes so many significant emitters.
Industrialized countries whose emissions have risen significantly since 1990, like Canada, remain in a weaker position to call on developing countries to limit their emissions, Figueres said.
"I regret that Canada has announced it will withdraw and am surprised over its timing," Figueres said in a statement.
Sunday, more than 190 countries agreed to extend Kyoto for at least five years and hammered out a new deal forcing all big polluters for the first time to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
Kyoto's first phase, due to expire at the end of next year but now extended until 2017, imposed limits only on developed countries, not emerging giants like China and India. The United States never ratified it.
The Canadian government said it would be subject to penalties equivalent to C$14 billion ($13.6 billion) under the terms of the treaty for not cutting emissions by the required amount by 2012.
China and Japan said Tuesday that Canada's decision was regrettable and called on it to continue to abide by its commitments on climate change. [ID:nL3E7ND2XL]
Figueres said the Durban agreement to a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol is essential "for the new push toward a universal, legal climate agreement in the near future."
(Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Alessandra Rizzo)
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