23 November 2007
For Personal Use Only

• Source: Daily Yomiuri

The government will propose a new system to help island nations and the world’s poorest countries–which are considered most vulnerable to the threats posed by global warming–to the U.N. climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, next month, government officials said.

Negotiators from industrialized and developing countries will discuss a new framework beyond the Kyoto Protocol, which covers the period between 2008 and 2012, at the 13th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, set for Dec. 3-14.

In its draft decision to be submitted to the meeting, the government also will call for a new special working panel to be set up to allow all signatory countries to discuss various flexible measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Bali climate change conference is expected to adopt a road map that deals with the most effective way to proceed with international negotiations, as well as deciding what topics need to be discussed in the future.

However, there is concern that participants may fail to reach an agreement.

With the European Union preparing a draft agreement with a view to eventually adopting strict reduction goals, it is feared the United States may object to the EU proposal, or developing countries may refuse to take on emission-reduction goals.

According to the government’s draft decision, the new working panel will deliberate on nine items, including a global, long-term reduction goal and measures to achieve that goal. The panel is to complete its work by the 15th U.N. climate change meeting in 2009.

As for reduction measures, the panel is to look at ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions for individual industrial sectors, and cooperation schemes, in both public and private sectors, according to the draft decision.

The Japanese plan is aimed at preventing the final agreement from merely setting numerical targets for individual developed countries, according to the officials.

On the other hand, Japan’s draft decision foresees a need to extend assistance to developing countries and small island states, such as Uganda and Kiribati. The government intends to distinguish newly emerging countries, such as China, from other developing countries that are vulnerable to rising sea levels and other phenomena resulting from climate change.

As the host of the Group of Eight summit meeting in Toyakocho, Hokkaido, next summer, the government hopes to take the lead in international negotiations on the post-Kyoto Protocol framework, seeking compromise among countries of various interests, according to the officials.

The Kyoto Protocol obliges industrialized countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5.2 percent from 1990 levels during the first commitment period between 2008 and 2012. Signatory countries are expected to reach agreement on new numerical targets for the second commitment period between 2013 and 2018, over which negotiations are currently under way at a working panel set up two years ago.

Filed by Nikola Cvetkovic under The Environment