Japan PM-elect pledges 25% greenhouse gas cut

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-07 15:13

Japanese Prime Minister-elect Yukio Hatoyama makes an opening speech at Asahi World Environment Forum 2009 in Tokyo September 7, 2009. [Agencies]

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister-elect Yukio Hatoyama said on Monday that Japan, the world's fifth-largest greenhouse gas emitter, will aim for a 25 percent cut in emissions by 2020 compared with 1990 levels.

But Hatoyama added that the target, more ambitious than the outgoing government's, was premised on a deal on ambitious goals being agreed by major nations.

"We can't stop climate change just with our country setting an emissions target," Hatoyama, who will take office on September 16 after a vote by parliament, said in a speech to a symposium on climate change.

"We will also aim to create a fair and effective international framework by all major countries in the world."

The Democratic Party has said a tough 2020 target is needed for Japan to play a bigger role in UN-backed climate talks in Copenhagen in December.

The talks will try to work out a new agreement on reducing emissions to succeed the current Kyoto Protocol, the first phase of which ends in 2012.

The outgoing government's 2020 target, announced in June, is equivalent to a cut of 8 percent below 1990 levels.

The Democratic Party's point person on climate change policies, Katsuya Okada, declined on Friday to say what Japan would do about its targets.

"We are trying to reach an agreement, so we are not discussing what to do if there is none," Okada told Reuters in an interview.

The 25 percent target is part of a more aggressive green policy laid out by Hatoyama's party, which is facing resistance from industry over the new goal.

Japan's top business group, Keidanren, is expected to lobby against the Democrats' emissions targets, while the auto industry lobby has said it is worried about the feasibility of the target.

But Hatoyama said fighting global warming presented an opportunity, not a threat, for businesses.

"Tackling climate change aggressively will open a new frontier for the Japanese economy and create jobs in areas such as electric cars and clean energy technology, including solar power," he said.

"There are cautious people who worry that it will hurt the economy and livelihoods, but I think it will change things for the better."

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