TORONTO, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Canada says it is withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, four years after saying it did not intend to meet its annual commitments.
The protocol "does not represent a way forward for Canada" and would have forced the country to take "radical and irresponsible choices," Environment Minister Pete Kent said Monday.
The long-expected legal move makes Canada to first nation officially to pull out of the global climate and emissions treaty, the BBC reported.
"Kyoto, for Canada, is in the past, and as such we are invoking our legal right to withdraw from Kyoto," Kent said, adding he would be formally advising the United Nations of his country's intention to pull out.
Adopted in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, the protocol is aimed at addressing global warming.
The cost of meeting Canada's obligations under Kyoto would be $13.6 billion, Kent said.
"That's $1,600 from every Canadian family -- that's the Kyoto cost to Canadians, that was the legacy of an incompetent liberal government," the Conservative minister said.
