Aso, ministers fail to agree on Japan's midterm emissions target+
By The Associated Press in PDDNet, Friday, June 05, 2009
TOKYO, June 5 (Kyodo) — Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and five Cabinet ministers concerned failed to reach a consensus Friday on a national midterm emissions reduction target despite the prime minister's plan to announce it next Wednesday.
The differences emerged chiefly between the Environment Ministry's hope to set an ambitious target and the industry ministry's demand for a lower target.
"There were differences in opinion between the ministers. I candidly think that we need to make efforts to put them together," Environment Minister Tetsuo Saito told a news conference, saying that he conveyed his view that a cut of 15-25 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels would be desirable.
Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Toshihiro Nikai separately told reporters, "I asserted that it would not be appropriate to impose a tremendous figure on people by turning to an idealistic theory."
Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said, "Though we have to take both views into consideration, we naturally have to think about moving in a direction which is ambitious and exercising our leadership in tackling global warming."
Kawamura told a news conference that the participants did not reach consensus over which direction Japan should take.
But they agreed to set the base year for calculating emissions at 2005 in setting the target for 2020, the top government spokesman said.
The participants also shared the view that such countries as the United States, China and India which did not participate in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol should participate in a new carbon-capping framework to succeed the protocol after it expires in 2012, Kawamura said.
The meeting was also attended by Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano and Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone.
The prime minister plans to meet Fujio Mitarai, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, and Tsuyoshi Takagi, president of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, at the prime minister's office and request their cooperation to achieve the target if it is decided on.
A government study panel has presented six options for Japan's greenhouse gas emissions target for 2020, ranging from a 4 percent increase to a 25 percent cut from 1990 levels.
A 2020 target is seen as crucial for Japan and other countries because it is the major focus of U.N. negotiations for a successor treaty to the carbon-capping Kyoto Protocol.
The talks are scheduled to conclude at a key U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen in December.
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