The provinces and the federal government have joined forces to boost the amount of ethanol in Canadian gasoline -- a promise made by the Tories during the federal election.

Federal Environment Minister Rona Ambrose said the provinces showed a "successful will to move forward" to make sure that by 2010 all gasoline maintains a five per cent renewable fuel standard.

Some experts say ethanol fuel, which is largely derived from corn and agricultural crops, can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Federal Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl and Natural Resource Minister Gary Lunn joined Ambrose to discuss the plan with provincial ministers in Regina.

"It's a big step forward in terms of greenhouse gas reduction," Kory Teneycke, president of the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association, told CTV Newsnet's Mike Duffy Live on Tuesday.

"With oil at over $75-a-barrel recently this is something that is an economics case and an environmental case."

But Liberal natural resources critic Roy Cullen told Mike Duffy Live that the initiative was not good enough.

"It really does nothing in terms of our greenhouse gas efficiencies because it takes so much natural gas to process these products into ethanol," Cullen said.

While there was no tangible progress made Tuesday, Ambrose said a framework would be worked out over the summer.

She did not answer questions on Canada's failure to reach its Kyoto accord goals.

A report in The Globe and Mail Tuesday said the ethanol initiative is an effort to deflect negative criticism from the Kyoto failures.

Environmental groups around the world continue to criticize Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government for announcing it could not meet the goals under the Kyoto accord set by the previous Liberals.

Canada's commitment to Kyoto is wavering as a leaked internal report says Tories do not support deeper emission-reduction targets for the agreement in the future, the Globe reported.

"What we've seen today is a recycling of a Liberal plan by a government that is trashing all of the other plans," John Bennett, of the Sierra Club of Canada told Mike Duffy Live.

"They just wanted to get our attention from the damage they're doing."

The Conservatives eventually hope to create an incentive program to increase production of ethanol, but first want to harmonize the varying provincial programs.

Meanwhile, Quebec Premier Jean Charest is under pressure to end the honeymoon with Harper because of the federal government's position on Kyoto.

Parti Quebecois Leader Andre Boisclair says Charest should prepare a plan for Quebec to meet the conditions of the agreement.