Canada will formally withdraw from the Kyoto accord on climate change, Environment Minister Peter Kent said Monday.

"The Kyoto Protocol does not represent the path forward for Canada," Kent said at a news conference in the foyer of the House of Commons, after his return from an international climate-change summit in Durban, South Africa.

"It's now clear Kyoto is not the path forward for a global solution to climate change. If anything, it's an impediment. We are invoking Canada's legal right to formally withdraw."

The announcement marks the end of years of controversy, as Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government repeatedly made it clear it would not be tied to the international commitment made by the previous Liberal government.

The Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1997 and ratified by most major countries except the United States. It committed industrialized nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to below 1990 levels and pro-vide financial help to developing countries to accomplish the task.

Although Canada had ratified the accord, it was not on track to meet its targets. Harper's Conservative government has opposed an extension of the Kyoto accord to future inter-national agreements, arguing other large emitting countries in the developing world, such as China and India, should be required to meet targets.

Kent blamed the former Liberal government for being "incompetent" by signing the accord and failing to meet its targets. As a result, he said, the current Conservative government, which took office in 2006, now faces "radical and irresponsible" choices if it is to avoid the $14 billion in international penalties he said it must pay for failing to meet those targets as a signatory to the accord.

Kent said to comply with Kyoto, dramatic action would need to be taken to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

"To meet the target under 2012 would be the equivalent of either removing every car, truck, ATV, tractor, ambulance, police car and vehicle of every kind from Canadian roads, or closing down the entire farming and agricultural sector and cut-ting heat to every home, office, hospital, factory and building in Canada."

Kent said this cannot happen, particularly since other major nations such as the U.S. aren't covered by Kyoto.

"Domestically, we will do our part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," said Kent.

"Canada, though, cannot do it alone," he said, noting this country produces just two per cent of global emissions.

But the minister was immediately blasted by opposition critics for abandoning attempts to find a solution to global warming, and for using scare tactics to explain his rationale.

NDP environment critic Megan Leslie accused Kent of "fearmongering" and of spreading misinformation.

"It was unbelievable and reprehensible, what he was doing," she said. "It's not enough to be afraid of the criminals in our streets. We now need to be afraid of driving cars and afraid of the international community taking all our money away."

Leslie said Kent was not telling the truth when he warned of billions of dollars in international penalties.

"They are just trying to hide their failures here by constructing this scary story and then saying it wasn't us, it was the Liberals."

Greenpeace Canada representative Mike Hudema said in a written statement the Harper government "has imposed a death sentence on many of the world's most vulnerable populations by pulling out of Kyoto."

He said the move "destabilizes" the promise of future action on global warming.