An environmental group on Friday gave Canada's Conservative government a series of failing grades on its environment policy, especially on its approach to climate change.

"Although Mr. Harper has been prime minister less than six months, the slide in marks is clear and worrying," the Sierra Club of Canada said in its 14th annual Report on International Obligations.

The group said the previous Liberal government had made " limited progress" on addressing environmental issues. But since the Conservatives' election win on Jan. 23, the new government's performance has been "dismal," it said.

The biggest slide was in the subject of climate change, the report said, slamming the government's lack of commitment for the 1998 Kyoto Protocol aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions around the world.

At the same time, however, the Sierra Club praised efforts at the provincial level in Quebec, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador to implement climate change programs.

In particular, the group praised the "gold star" agenda in Quebec. On Thursday the province's Liberal government unveiled a plan to cut Quebec's greenhouse gas emissions to levels just short of the Kyoto targets, including by levying carbon tax on gas and oil companies.

Canada was one of the first countries to sign the Kyoto Protocol, but since the conservatives swept to power earlier this year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has repeatedly said that it would be "impossible" for his country to meet its emissions reduction targets.

The Kyoto Protocol obliges industrialized nations to reduce output of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases to the 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.

Canada's protocol target is to be 6 percent below the 1990 levels by 2012, but its emissions are now 35 percent above its 1990 base level.

Source: Xinhua