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Cut gas emissions: Japan panel head

Japan should cut greenhouse gas emissions from households and transportation to meet carbon dioxide reduction targets required under the Kyoto global warming pact, the head of an environmental panel said yesterday.

Japan is falling far behind in its struggle to meet its obligation under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent below its 1990 levels by 2012. It currently emits 14 percent more gases than in 1990.

Industrial emissions have remained flat, but emission of gases -- primarily carbon dioxide -- have soared up to 40 percent since 1990 in the services and household sectors, said Akio Morishima, the head of the government panel.

"We need to think about what to do in areas that were not previously regulated ... like households and transportation," said Morishima, who chairs the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies.

Morishima heads a special 16-member panel working on ways to cut emissions.

Task force

The panel's work will be used by a task force that is headed by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe working on specific steps the country will take to meet the Kyoto requirements.

Japan could cut 20 percent of carbon emissions from households with steps such as offering subsidies or tax-breaks for using solar energy, or reinforcing insulation in homes to conserve heat, Morishima said.

"We need to accelerate the current measures that are being taken, strengthen those that will lead to further cuts in emissions and immediately study additional measures that are certain to be effective," he told reporters.

Kyoto obligations

The focus on meeting the Kyoto obligations comes after Abe announced a proposal on Thursday to cut global greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050 as the basis of an international climate pact to take over from the Kyoto agreement, which expires in 2012.

Kyoto requires some 36 industrialized countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent overall under 1990 levels.

The US, however, has rejected the pact, which also does not require leading polluters such as China or India to reduce emissions.

Broad outline

Abe said the aim of the new proposal was to lay out a broad outline that all nations could agree on, and then work out the details.

"In order to make the new framework more effective than the current Kyoto Protocol, we need to first broaden the platform and include a large number of countries," Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said.
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