SURE, IT’S ALL ABOUT THE SCIENCE

Withdrawing from Kyoto will damage our credibility: briefing (Dennis Bueckert, Canadian Press, May 13th, 2006)

Canada would lose international credibility and the ability to influence future climate-change negotiations if it withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol, say briefing documents prepared for Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.

"Given the Kyoto Protocol's international profile ... withdrawal from the Protocol would have important foreign policy implications,'' says the document, marked "secret.''

The analysis could explain why the Conservative government has chosen to remain within the protocol despite having fought it while in opposition, and despite deeming its targets unrealistic.

"Canada would have diminished credibility in discussing options for what future commitments industrialized countries might make, having rejected its earlier commitments,'' says the analysis, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

These bureaucrats never seem to ask themselves how much credibility the world would accord a country that tries to craft its foreign policy on the basis of maximizing its credibility.