Canada’s federal cabinet has approved a five-year, $500 million plan to address the problem of climate change, the government’s first substantive effort on the issue, though it only goes one-third of the way to meeting the country’s emission-reduction targets under the Kyoto climate change treaty. The plan, to be officially unveiled today, will call on the federal government to buy as much as 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar power and also offer financial incentives to give a boost to green energy sources. Enviros were disappointed that the plan doesn’t call for major investments in urban mass transit, which could help cut greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. The Kyoto Protocol calls on Canada to lower its emissions by 6 percent from 1990 levels by 2010, but a government report last year found that the nation’s emissions rose 13 percent between 1990 and 1998.
