Commonwealth leaders agreed to a much watered-down agreement on climate change after Prime Minister Stephen Harper resisted any reference to binding targets on greenhouse gas emissions.
The agreement, announced at a news conference Saturday afternoon was a setback for other Commonwealth members, led by Britain, who had called for binding commitments for greenhouse gas reductions in the statement.
But Mr. Harper said that he could not agree to the original proposal which put binding commitments on some large greenhouse-gas emitters and not for others.
“We will not agree to a framework that binds some countries and not others because that is a recipe for failure on the issue of climate change,” he told reporters. “We already have a protocol like that and it doesn’t work. We need a protocol that involves everyone.”