Quebec has distanced itself from the Harper government's anti-Kyoto stance and will voice its dissent at an international climate-change summit next week, the government said.

Members of all three Quebec political parties represented in the National Assembly unanimously adopted a motion dissociating the provincial legislature from the Conservative government's position on the Kyoto Protocol.

Quebec Environment Minister Line Beauchamp at the National Assembly on Wednesday.
(Jacques Boissinot/Canadian Press)

Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently described the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emission reductions as a "mistake," a contention that Quebec cannot accept, said Premier Jean Charest on Wednesday during debates leading to the vote.

Quebec believes in binding GHG reduction targets, and is within striking distance of reducing its output of carbon dioxide by six per cent of 1990 levels, the premier said.

The province will continue to strive to reach those targets despite Ottawa's decision to abandon the deal, Quebec Environment Minister Line Beauchamp said.
 
The province will also make its position clear at United Nations climate change talks next week in Bali, Indonesia, she vowed.

The UN talks will launch negotiations to extend the Kyoto Protocol past its 2012 deadline.

 

With files from the Canadian Press