Canada is being taken to court by Friends of the Earth Canada against failing plans to reduce greenhouse gases that do not meet Canada’s Kyoto Protocol obligations. Canada is the first country to face any such lawsuit.

If the lawsuit succeeds, the legal action will force the Conservatives to devise a new plan that will meet the Kyoto Protocol targets. Under the protocol, Canada has sighned and ratified to reduce greenhouse gases from burning of fossil fuels by 6 per cent less than the country’s 1990 levels by the year 2012.

However, last year, Environment Minister John Baird introduced a climate change program that would allow emissions to be 34 per cent higher in 2012, and not reach the required reductions until after 2020. Canada is the only country of the 38 countries that signed the Kyoto agreement that has announced it would ignore the reduction requirements.

The lawsuit was filed to try to force the government to put "its political will behind meeting the protocol,” says Beatrice Olivastri, the group's chief executive officer, who said Canadians want the country "to play an honourable role for climate action for the planet." The protocol "would require us to put in place a 50-cent-a-litre hike at the pumps," however would affect seniors and the middle class.

Federal lawyers have argued in a legal brief on the case that the adequacy of Mr. Baird's plan is "not justiciable" and is a matter for Parliament, not the courts.