India terms Canada's withdrawal from Kyoto pact as contrary to its commitment on climate change

New Delhi, Dec 19 (ANI): Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan has said that Canada's withdrawal from Kyoto protocol is a complete violation, after it became the first nation to announce its withdrawal from the pact on climate change.

Speaking on the sidelines of an event here, Natarajan said: "Well it is very clear that what Canada has done is a complete violation of the Kyoto protocol and it exactly proves the point that we are trying to make that the countries is in the Kyoto protocol should be very serious their mitigation targets to quantify the mitigation targets, this is exactly what we asked for in Durban."

On December 12, Canada became the first country to announce it would withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, complaining that the agreement is unworkable because it excludes many significant emitters from binding action.

Canada is the first nation to formally withdraw from the treaty although it is not yet clear when that will happen.

It said little during recent climate talks in South Africa where countries agreed to extend the Kyoto protocol and hammer out a new deal to force big polluters to cut greenhouse emissions.

Canada's government says it would face penalties of more than 13 billion US dollars for failing to reach its target cuts by 2012.owever, the decision to quit will not help Canada's international reputation.

Maritime emissions were omitted from national commitments under the UNFCCC'S (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which ceded control to the UN body responsible for the sector, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

The IMO's delay was widely blamed on its insistence on equal treatment for all vessels, while the UNFCCC puts more onus on industrialised nations though its ethos of 'common but differentiated responsibilities'.

Ideas for global measures that also compensate poorer nations have gained ground and the previous standoff could ease after the Durban talks ended with a deal to bind all countries to emission limits from 2020. (ANI)