PM - "We can't keep Kyoto timeline"

Finally... it's about time that SOMEBODY tells it like it is.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - It is unlikely that Canada will be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at all in the next few years, let alone achieve the major cuts needed to meet its Kyoto targets, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Friday.

"The first step, realistic step ... will be to try over the next few years to stabilize emissions, and obviously over the longer term to reduce them," Harper said after an international report said global warming was largely caused by mankind.

"But as I've said before, I think realistically the only way you can get absolute reductions is through the application of new technology over time. I don't think realistically we can tell Canadians: 'Stop driving your car, stop going to work, turn the heat off in the winter."'

Canada's emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, blamed for global warming, are now 33 percent above the level it agreed to hit by 2012 under the Kyoto Protocol.

Mathematically, that would require a 25 percent cut in emissions from current levels, something Harper has long said would be impossible.

Thank you, Right Honourable Prime Minister Harper. Someone is finally talking sense.

Do Canadians say they want to keep out Kyoto committments? Yea, they do. Is it phyically possible to reach these goals? NOT A CHANCE.

Of course, the Liberals are going to pound their chests and say, "WE CAN STILL DO IT!" To which, we will reply by quoting Mr. Ignatieff... "Stephane, we didn't get it done... We didn't get it done." It's FAR too late... that point of no return was passed a long time ago... while the Liberals were still in power, for the record. Let's set some realistic goals (and NO, I don't mean 2050!) and then get investing in the technologies that will allow us to get there. Let's cut this garbage of international carbon credits, and get investing in our own R&D to get the job done.

But its going to take some time, if we want to avoid torpedoing our economy. Let's just hope the electorate clues into that fact.