|
MONTREAL - Shouts of joy and sighs of relief marked the end of an all-night
marathon of final negotiations yesterday for a new United Nations deal on
cutting air pollution that warms the globe and worsens the climate.
But amid the jubilation at the UN-led conference of world environment ministers
in Montreal, there was also a warning for the Canadian government in the throes
of an election campaign.
Put your clean-air money where your mouth is, environmental groups said, and
reverse Canada's trend to burn more oil, gasoline and coal, whose gases get
trapped in the atmosphere and make the planet hotter.
With the world's biggest greenhouse gas polluter, the United States, out of the
deal to reduce emissions, it's up to Canada to set an example for others, the
groups said.
So far, it hasn't.
Under the Kyoto Protocol climate pact ratified in 1988 and begun this year,
Canada promised to cut its ...