The government has announced it will invoke its legal right to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, Environment Minister Peter Kent said Monday.

“It’s now clear that Kyoto is not the path forward for a global solution to climate change. If anything, it’s an impediment,” Kent told reporters in Ottawa.

The opposition and environmentalists have blasted the move, with Ben West of the Wilderness Committee calling it “a blatantly irresponsible course of action.” Others, however, have lauded it. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation said Canadians “have every reason to celebrate” the withdrawal.

"Had we failed to exercise our rights under the agreement to withdraw, Canadians would have been on the hook for somewhere between $14 billion and $19 billion—we would have been obliged to turn the money over to foreign governments to purchase carbon credits,” the CTF said in a release.

Photo: An activist wears a mask depicting the face of Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, during a protest in Durban on the sidelines of the UN climate talks, on December 5.