Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion tabled an Opposition motion on Thursday calling on the Tory government to reaffirm Canada's commitment to the Kyoto Protocol, an accord signed by the Liberals when they were in power.

The motion demands the government "honour the principles and targets of the Kyoto Protocol in their entirety," and calls on the Tories to create and publish a "credible" plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion introduces an Opposition motion calling on the Conservative government to reconfirm Canada's commitment to the Kyoto protocol on Thursday.
(Tom Hanson/Canadian Press)

"Canadians are not fooled," Dion told the House. "They know that this prime minister has no commitment to fight climate change. His only motive is to prepare for an election."

He described the proposed Conservative alternatives to Kyoto as "baby steps."

Dion's motion comes as both parties hammer each other on their environmental record, and follows the recently surfaced letter Prime Minister Stephen Harper wrote in 2002 deriding the Kyoto accord.

The letter described Kyoto as a "socialist scheme" that is based on "tentative and contradictory scientific evidence" and designed to suck money out of rich countries.

Harper accepts science of climate change

Harper has since said he accepts the science of climate change, but the Tories have said that Canada has no chance of meeting its emissions targets under the Kyoto accord and must set more realistic goals for reducing greenhouse gases.

Canada was one of the first countries to sign the Kyoto accord, on April 29, 1998. The Tories have said that the Liberals may have signed the agreement, but did nothing while in power to combat greenhouse gas emissions.

The international agreement requires Canada to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to six per cent below 1990 levels by 2012. But since 1990, emissions have gone up, with the latest figures showing an increase of almost 30 per cent.

"I'm glad the Liberal party brought forward this motion today," Environment Minister John Baird said. "It's an opportunity to remind them of their shameful record over 13 years of inaction on the environment."

Baird said Dion, as a former environment minister, had a track record on the issue that is "very regrettable."

Meanwhile, Harper is sending Baird to Paris, where dozens of scientists have gathered to release an international report on global warming.