Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin called for "strong actions" from all countries that have signed on with the Kyoto Protocol for climate change. (Xinhua/AFP photo)

    OTTAWA, Dec. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin called on Wednesday called for "strong actions" from all countries that have signed on with the Kyoto Protocol for climate change.

    Martin made the call Wednesday morning when he kicked off the high-level portion of the World Climate Change Conference being held in Montreal.

    Martin said human behavior is responsible for climate change and the world must alter its ways, urging the delegates to make the event a historic moment where a consensus is reached to combat global warming.

    The world's environment ministers will hold negotiations from Wednesday to Friday on the extension of the Kyoto Protocol. Experts and government officials have been preparing the groundwork for the last 10 days, but key issues remain for politicians to resolve.

    The biggest question is whether countries will agree on further emissions reductions beyond 2012, the end date of the protocol's first phase.

    Martin admitted that Canada's climate record was far from perfect in the 1990s yet he vowed to take more effective measures in the coming years.

    "But now we are investing billions in progressive, effective initiatives as we work towards our Kyoto commitments. Now we are using our resource strength as a platform for innovation -- in cleaner energy, renewable energy, sustainable energy, in efficiency and conservation," He said.

    Martin also took a shot at nations that fail to acknowledge human activity as cause of much of the earth's warming.

    Without specifically mentioning the United States, the biggest polluter responsible for up to a quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, Martin criticized the "nations that resist, voices that attempt to diminish the urgency or dismiss the science, or declare ... that this is not our problem to solve."

    Under the Kyoto Protocol, industrial countries are required to cut greenhouse emissions by 5.2 percent from 1990 levels by 2012.

    There was a flurry of excitement Monday when delegates seemed near consensus on a draft text on a new round of talks, but a marathon meeting that lasted until 2 a.m. Tuesday resulted in more rather than less bracketed wording.

    In UN negotiations, wording subject to dispute is placed in brackets.

    A Canadian-inspired effort to bring the Americans back into international climate negotiations was made public Tuesday, only to be rebuffed a few hours later.

    The proposal by Environment Minister Stephane Dion, President of the Conference, was painstakingly crafted to avoid US objections.

    It called on countries "to engage in discussions to explore and analyze approaches for long term co-operative action to address climate change."

    The term "discussions" was used to avoid "negotiations" which the Americans have already rejected.

    Environmentalists say there is no hope of engaging the current US administration in meaningful co-operation on the climate issue, and Kyoto countries should proceed on the assumption that a future administration will be more favorable.

    Scientists say far deeper cuts are required if the world is to avoid a two degree rise in average temperatures, the threshold beyond which catastrophic climate change may be inevitable. Enditem