Japan, US said mulling convening leaders’ climate summit before G-8 talks
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Tokyo, Dec. 24 Kyodo - Japan and the United States are considering convening a leaders’ summit of major carbon emitters and a US-led meeting of major emitters ahead of the Group of Eight summit next July in Japan, according to Japanese government sources.
Holding the two meetings concurrently in Japan, the two countries plan to take the lead in building a long-term global goal of “halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050″ as a “joint conclusion” of the US-led talks and the G-8 summit, the sources said.
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and US President George W. Bush have agreed to this bilateral initiative, and the two nations have begun working-level talks on a plan to hold the “Environment and Energy Summit” of G-8 leaders and their partners from other carbon emitters and the US-led “Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change” ahead of the G-8 summit in Hokkaido.
The initiative reflects the two nations’ concern that UN negotiations on a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which will expire in 2012, may be led by the European Union and developing countries, both of which call for much deeper emission cuts than Kyoto levels by developed countries and imposition of binding emission caps on each economy.
The initiative also mirrors opposition to binding emission cut targets by Japanese industry circles and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, as well as the Bush administration.
The Kyoto pact requires 37 industrial countries to cut emissions by an average of 5 per cent below 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012.
But Bush appears to support Japan’s proposal of halving global carbon emissions by 2050 with the participation of “all” carbon emitters, including the United States, China, India and other carbon emitters that are not subject to emission cuts under the Kyoto Protocol.
The Bush administration regards the major economies’ process, launched in September, as the main vehicle for setting future climate change steps by Washington. The US-led meeting brings together 16 major carbon emitters such as Japan, China, India and European countries to discuss steps that are expected to be nationally determined, and voluntary cutbacks in greenhouse gas emissions, an idea that Europe opposes.
Some nongovernmental organizations say it is wrong for Japan to tie up with the United States on this issue, saying the Bush administration is trying to undermine the UN process aimed at significantly cutting emissions with its voluntary-based climate change strategy, which experts believe will not be effective enough to significantly reduce emissions.
“When the Bush administration launched the major economies’ process in September, it drew criticism from Europe and developing countries because it failed to produce substantial measures to reduce carbon emissions,” said Mika Obayashi, director at the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies in Tokyo.
“Linking such a process to the G-8 summit will lead to a loss of confidence in the summit and Japan’s leadership in climate diplomacy,” Obayashi said.
“It is also obvious that the United States’ climate change policy will mark a significant change if the Democrats assume power in the 2008 presidential election, which many believe is likely.”
Leading 2008 US Democratic presidential candidates are calling for an 80 per cent cut in global carbon emissions by 2050 from 1990 levels with the cap-and-trade system.
In this year’s summit in Germany, G-8 leaders agreed to “consider seriously” halving global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 from the current levels, a proposal by then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The G-8 groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.
Climate change will be top of the agenda at the July 7-9 summit at the Lake Toya hot-spring resort area in Hokkaido. The event’s focus will be whether G-8 leaders will pave the way for building an effective post-Kyoto framework.
Critics argue the 1997 climate pact is not e ffective as it covers only 30 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions. Recent ratification by Australia makes the United States the only industrialized country to have rejected the Kyoto accord.
Filed by Catherine Tsalikis under The Environment, Climate Change