Canada's decision to formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol doesn't mean the international community isn't serious about tackling global warming, the federal government says.
Ottawa's decision to opt out of Kyoto - which it labelled an "impediment" to effective global action - means it won't be slugged $14 billion in penalties for not achieving its 2012 emission reduction targets.
But Australian Climate Change Minister Greg Combet insists Canada is still committed to reducing pollution.
"The Canadian decision to withdraw from the protocol should not be used to suggest Canada does not intend to play its part in global efforts to tackle climate change," a spokesman said in a statement.
"In Durban, Canada made clear it supports a new international climate change agreement that includes commitments from all major emitters."
Canadian Environment Minister Peter Kent declared Ottawa was withdrawing from Kyoto because the protocol didn't cover the world's largest emitters - namely the United States and China.
A new deal struck at UN climate talks in Durban this week for a wider treaty with binding targets for all was the way forward, he said.
That's a view shared by Canberra.
Australia argued at Durban it wouldn't be part of a second commitment period under Kyoto until a broader agreement was reached covering all major emitters including both developed and developing countries.
The European Union, Switzerland and Norway were among the very few parties to agree in South Africa to new commitments under Kyoto.
The Gillard government is considering its position.
"We won't be immediately signing up to a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol," Mr Combet told Sky News today.
"A timetable for that may be 2015. That's an issue the government will keep in review."
The new treaty is scheduled to be concluded no later than 2015. It will then come into effect by 2020.
Mr Combet has defended that timeline, arguing 2020 is "not that far off at all" and Australia hasn't jumped the gun by legislating for a carbon tax from mid-2012.
"If we were not starting to make the change in our economy during that eight-year period in order to be ready to take on another legal obligation of that nature it'd be like hitting the economy with the back of the axe in 2020," he said.
But the federal opposition isn't convinced.
"The continued move away from international action leaves Australia increasingly isolated in its adoption of an economy-wide carbon tax," climate action spokesman Greg Hunt said in a statement.
"The announcement that Canada is to be the first country to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol is a major blow to Labor's carbon tax."
Ottawa said today it would continue to try to reduce its emissions under a domestic plan that calls for a three per cent cut by 2020 from 1990 levels.
Meanwhile, the Australian Greens have attacked former prime minister John Howard for launching controversial geologist Ian Plimer's latest book which suggests school children are being fed political propaganda on climate change.
"(Mr Howard now) says he's agnostic on climate change though in 2007 he advocated carbon trading," Greens leader Bob Brown said in a statement.
"Agnostic is Howard code for inaction. He was much more comfortable back in the last century."
Launching Professor Plimer's book on Monday, Mr Howard said there was a problem with "one-sided science" being taught in schools.
