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Position prompts walkout at climate talks

The government’s push to abandon much of the Kyoto protocol prompted dozens of developing countries to walk out on Canada’s address during recent climate talks in Thailand, The Canadian Press has learned.

OTTAWA — The government’s push to abandon much of the Kyoto protocol prompted dozens of developing countries to walk out on Canada’s address during recent climate talks in Thailand, The Canadian Press has learned.

The mass walkout came after the Canadian delegation suggested replacing the Kyoto Protocol with an entirely new global-warming pact, says one of the negotiators and notes taken by others at the meeting.

A widening and bitter rift between rich and developing countries over climate change was laid bare last week when delegates from 180 nations met in Bangkok to shape a successor to Kyoto before its first phase expires in just over two years. The United Nations hopes to broker a draft deal in time for a meeting in Copenhagen this December.

The delegates discussed whether all or parts of Kyoto should end up in the new agreement, according to notes taken by a delegate from a developing nation and one of the South African negotiators.

The developing countries want a new climate deal to complement Kyoto, but Canadian officials told the room they would rather replace Kyoto with one agreement, according to the meeting notes.

Canada’s delegation was apparently open to putting “some or all” of Kyoto in a new climate pact, the notes say.

“Some or all of (Kyoto Protocol) elements can be incorporated into (Copenhagen) agreement,” the notes say about Canada’s position.

At that point, the South African delegation led the Group of 77 developing nations, except for a group of small island states, out of the room.

“The conversation, in our view, at the point in time was effectively over and the G77 left the room,” Joanne Yawitch, a South African negotiator at the Bangkok talks, said in an interview.

Talks resumed the next day, she added.

“We’re not going to walk out of any negotiating process,” Yawitch said. “But there are certain conversations which we feel are outside of the perimeters of the legal mandate.”

The developing nations were perturbed that Canada and other industrial countries would consider copying parts Kyoto into a new treaty. “You can’t do a cut and paste on a ratified treaty,” Yawitch said.

“You have to re-open it and negotiate what you would cut and paste. And we think that the risks are that you might end up with something that might be considerably weaker.”

Environment Minister Jim Prentice declined comment on the walkout.

The Kyoto Protocol binds 37 industrial countries — including Canada but not the United States, which refused to sign it under George W. Bush’s presidency — to reduce greenhouse gases by 5.2 per cent from 1990 levels by 2012.