Canada has no chance of meeting its commitments to cut emissions of greenhouse gases laid down by the Kyoto climate change protocol, the minority Conservative government said in a policy speech on Tuesday. The speech will need the approval of the main opposition Liberal Party, which strongly backs Kyoto. The party has yet to say how it will react to the proposal. The government reiterated that it would impose mandatory cuts on big emitters and said overall emissions would drop by 20 percent from current levels by 2020.

(Reuters, 17/10/2007)