Heartland Institute Reacts to Canada Pulling Out of Kyoto Climate Treaty

Published December 13, 2011

Canada’s environment minister, Peter Kent, said his country is withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, adding “it is now clear that Kyoto is not the path forward to a global solution to climate change. If anything it’s an impediment.”

The following statements from environment policy experts at The Heartland Institute – a free-market think tank – may be used for attribution. For more comments, refer to the contact information below. To book a Heartland guest on your program, please contact Tammy Nash at [email protected] and 312/377-4000. After regular business hours, contact Jim Lakely at [email protected] and 312/731-9364.


“One nation alone, China, is responsible for 75 percent of the rise in global emissions this century yet remains exempt from carbon dioxide restrictions. Emissions in the United States and most Western democracies have declined this century, even as global emissions have risen by one-third. Yet the United Nations and collectivist environmental activist groups lay the ‘blame’ for forecast global warming squarely on western democracies such as Canada and the United States.

“Canada is wise to join the growing number of nations acknowledging that the Kyoto Protocol was a failure. Such a failure might be a cause for concern if the world truly faced a global warming crisis. Real-world scientific evidence, however, continues to show that alarmist computer models are flawed and the world faces no such climate crisis.”

James M. Taylor
Senior Fellow for Environment Policy
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
941/776-5690


“The decision of the Harper government to formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol should be applauded. Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. It is a life-giving essential component of our atmosphere that exerts little influence on Earth’s climate. Other governments should wise up and follow the example of Canada and shun this wasteful, no-good, economy-killing, and completely unnecessary international agreement supported by so-called environmentalists, alarmist scientists, and rent-seeking politicians.”

Craig D. Idso
Senior Fellow, Environment
The Heartland Institute
Co-editor, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change
www.nipccreport.org
[email protected]
312/377-4000


“As someone who has spent a great deal of time lecturing in Canada over the years and finding the people to be smart and affable, it was always surprising that they had a government taken in by the global warming delusion. It is exciting and rewarding to finally see them coming to their senses, and hope springs eternal that their neighbors to the south might consider following suit.”

Jay Lehr
Science Director
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-4000


The Heartland Institute is a 27-year-old national nonprofit organization with offices in Chicago, Illinois; Washington, DC; Austin, Texas; Tallahassee, Florida; and Columbus, Ohio. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our Web site or call 312/377-4000.