What does Canada's withdrawal from Kyoto protocol mean?

Canada's environment minister, Peter Kent, announces that Canada will withdraw from the Kyoto accord, outside the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario. Photograph: Fred Chartrand/AP It's been four years in the offing, but Canada on Monday finally and formally withdrew from the world's only existing legal treaty to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the Kyoto protocol. Despite criticism from environmentalists and the international community – China has called the move "irresponsible" through its state media – Canada is within its legal rights. The environment minister, Peter Kent, said: "We are invoking our legal right to formally withdraw from Kyoto." Josh Roberts, a US-qualified lawyer at environmental law organisation ClientEarth, points out that article 27 of the Kyoto protocol allows any country to withdraw three years after the protocol is in force, ie about now. The protocol was ratified in 2005, but came into force on 1 January 2008, the start of the so-called first commitment period for countries to cut their emissions, which finishes at the end of 2012. Countries wanting to withdraw from the protocol also have to give a year's notice, according to Kyoto experts, which would explain Canada's timing – just over a year before the end of the first commitment phase.