Environmental group Friends of the Earth (FoE) Canada launched a lawsuit earlier this week against the country’s Conservative Government for its failure to meet international commitments under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“Because climate change is the most urgent crisis ever facing the planet, Friends of the Earth is resorting to the courts to require the federal government to respect its Kyoto promises,” said Beatrice Olivastri, chief executive officer of Friends of the Earth Canada.

“We must see an end to important programmes being dismantled, terminated and slashed – all part of the pattern of Kyoto denial by the federal government.”

Environmentalists say that Canadians come second only to Austria in abandoning the commitment to Kyoto targets, with greenhouse gas emissions at more than 34% above the 6% reduction target.

The lawsuit launched in federal court, relies on a clause in the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA) that requires Canada to prevent air pollution that violates an international agreement binding.

FoE Canada referred to a legal opinion presented to the Canadian government in October 2006 indicating the country has failed to show “demonstrable progress” in achieving its target as required by 2005.

Earlier this year, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a “Turning the Corner” climate change strategy which set greenhouse gas reduction targets from industry and other sources to 20% below 2006 levels by 2020.

The announcement was dismissed by FoE Canada, saying this would still leave Canada about 39% above the Kyoto target for 2008-2012, and that Canada is second only to Austria in the “staggering size of its failure to meet its Kyoto target.”

LAWFUEL’s lead story, from the New York times, reports that a top woman lawyer hit GE’s glass ceiling and has landed her former employer with a lawsuit accusing the company of systematically discriminating against women in both pay and promotions.

Yesterday Ms. Schaefer, 43, filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Connecticut, accusing G.E. of systematically discriminating against women in both pay and promotions. She is seeking to have the suit certified as a class action.

David Sanford, one of her lawyers, said he expected as many as 1,700 women to join the suit and that he was asking for back pay, raises and compensatory damages totaling about $500 million to be distributed among the plaintiffs.

Ms. Schaefer is not sure that many women will sign on. “The women at G.E. are scared to death, so this is the loneliest thing I’ve ever done,” she said.

Ms. Schaefer maintains that G.E. has done a stellar job of helping women migrate up through management. But she said that only 13 percent of G.E.’s officers were women, about the same percentage as six years ago. Moreover, she said that many male general counsels were part of G.E.’s “senior executive band,” the job level just below corporate officer. She said that most female general counsels, including herself, were ranked lower.