OTTAWA - Environment Minister Peter Kent is only half-joking when he says he wants to bring home fewer fossil-of-day-awards from upcoming global talks on climate change than his predecessors.
He is conscious of the fact that in the past few rounds of negotiations to reduce greenhouse gases, Canada has had the dubious distinction of being singled out repeatedly by environmentalists for standing in the way of progress.
In a lengthy interview with The Canadian Press before heading off to negotiations in Durban, South Africa, Kent said Canada deserves a different kind of recognition — for promoting "responsible" industrial development, and for pushing for a global climate change pact that would draw in all the major polluters.
That kind of agenda requires some stepping on toes — especially in developing and emerging countries where some governments insist that rich countries should carry the biggest burden because of their historical emissions.
"I'd be delighted if I came back with fewer fossil awards than John Baird or Jim Prentice," Kent said, referring to previous Conservative environment ministers who were frequently presented with the awards, and even won the Colossal Fossil of the Year award at least twice.
"We're going in good faith, not to obstruct."
But pacifying environmentalists is certainly not on Kent's to-do list.
Many environmental groups, developing countries and the European Union want the Durban talks to lead to a new version of the Kyoto Protocol — the pact that has framed emissions-reductions efforts for the past two decades and is about to expire next year.
Canada, however, wants no part of a second Kyoto pact, or anything even resembling that arrangement, said Kent. He says Canada is in good company, with Japan, Russia and the United States onside.
"There is a recognition that Kyoto isn't fair, and it's certainly not effective," he said, since developing and emerging countries — including several of the world's largest greenhouse-gas emitters — are not held to account by the regime.
Domestically, Kent says, "from Canada's point of view, Kyoto was the biggest mistake the previous Liberal government made," since there was no plan for Canada to live up to its commitments.
In Durban, he said, all countries should commit to negotiating a pact to reduce greenhouse gases over time, and agree to submit their reductions to international scrutiny one every year or every two years.
Emerging and developing countries need to stop "wielding the historical guilty card" and asking for a free pass on emissions reductions just because in the past, industrialized countries had more emissions than the rest of the world, Kent added.
Binding commitments don't necessarily have to be negotiated now, but that should be the goal. And in return, rich countries will figure out ways to finance the $100-billion-a-year Green Climate Fund to help developing countries adapt to warmer climates and cut greenhouse gases, Kent said.
However, if countries don't agree to open up and allow international scrutiny of their greenhouse gases, there's no way Canada or other rich countries would agree to the financing, he said.
Kent said he will announce how Canada will be spending its next annual tranche of $400-million to the "fast-start" plan to help poor countries with their climate change efforts.
This time, most of the money will be given on a bilateral basis, to projects selected by Ottawa rather than through multilateral institutions. And half of the money will be in repayable loans, the minister said.
But further financial commitments to the Green Climate Fund depend on whether there is broad agreement to reduce greenhouse gases by 2020, with verification, he said.
"We need to advance broadly rather than simply make financial agreements as one-offs."
The Durban talks start on Monday morning and last for two weeks, in an attempt to break a deadlock in how global warming should be kept under control. Ministers, including Kent, will join their negotiators in a week's time.
They have been hit by a pile of new expert reports warning that global warming is already causing catastrophe in some parts of the world, and that temperatures are set to rise dramatically unless emissions are actively set on a downward track soon.
But as the science urges quick action, the talks are going around in circles and "diplomacy is falling apart," says Mark Winfield, a professor of environmental studies at York University.
Developing countries want money up front. Rich countries want commitments up front. The European Union wants to renew the Kyoto Protocol, but not all its members are keen. And the United States is continually so bogged down in domestic politics that its international commitments are thin.
"The message is clear. We urgently need global action to halt and begin reversing the growth of emissions within this decade. Every further delay comes with costs," said think-tank Pembina Institute in an analysis of the talks.
"Without a clear indication that developed countries are serious about meeting their financing commitments, the talks will have difficulty moving forward."
Kent says he is somewhat optimistic that the Durban meeting will produce a launch of talks that will produce a treaty of some kind by 2015.
But his hopes of leaving Durban without diplomatic scars and fossil awards are likely to be dashed, said Winfield.
Canada's reputation is taking a bashing, as it works to promote oilsands production while cutting its greenhouse gas emissions targets and blocking any talk of renewing the Kyoto Protocol, he said.
"The criticism of Canada is becoming more and more explicit."
© The Canadian Press, 2011