blog 24 Ottawa sued over Kyoto

Ottawa sued over Kyoto
In Ottawa the environmental group called Kyoto protocol sued Ottawa at court, they wish to be able to force the Conservative government to meet their responsibilities. Kyoto protocol challenged Ottawa in court on 2007, 5, 29. They said Canada will likely be in "flagrant breach" of it’s international obligations under the climate-change treaty.
For Christine Elwell, a spokeswoman for Kyoto, the message to Prime Minister Stephen Harper was simply "You can't just do whatever you want. You have laws. You have obligations."
A former lawyer of the Sierra Legal Defence Fund called Robert Wright, says “the group does not want to the court to impose a climate-change plan on the federal government. It just wants the Conservatives to honour the Kyoto targets to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions”. He also added, "We're not asking the court to tell the government precisely how to deal with climate change and greenhouse gases,".
For Christine Elwell responded, "We are asking the court to tell the government that whatever plan they do come up with, whatever regulations they do come out with, that they comply with the legal obligation."
Given the evidence before a Commons committee in the community today, Environment Minister John Baird told the court, they have respected the Kyoto but the target emission reduction level would be too hard or not achievable because if done so many people would be affected by that.
The government's other plan promises to reduce the green house gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 based on 2006 levels, with greenhouse gas emitters facing a 26 per cent reduction by 2015. As then the Kyoto protocol said that they would only agree to this act by setting 1990 as the base year for reductions and a thumbs down to 2006.
When both sides are ready to agree the government's plan was then criticized again on Monday by the Pembina Institute which are an other environmental group, they stated that “there are far too many loopholes and assumptions in the emission-reduction targets”. The courts must tell the government that it "can't cut and run," said Elwell. "You can't just do whatever you want. You're not free to decide that `I'm not going to follow our obligation."' Canada ratified the Kyoto protocol in 2002. The agreement calls for overall reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to six per cent below 1990 levels between the years 2008 and 2012. This is important because I think that the government wanted to do whatever they want and ignore the other problems such as this one. They should of watched out for their greenhouse gas emissions through out the time, and also they can’t say that it is too impossible to meet the requirements because they signed the treaty and they should of changed anything on that treaty when there are things that are hard to keep up with.
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/218923