By Alys Granados
Following negotiations at a United Nations climate change summit in Durban, South Africa, Canadian Environment Minister Peter Kent announced Canada’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 United Nations treaty requiring member nations to stabilize their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions below 1990 levels. The goal was to curb the effects of climate change and while the Liberal government ratified the treaty in 2002, it was clear that GHG reduction targets would not be met by the original 2012 deadline. Canada is now among the few developed nations not signed on to Protocol.