Leaders of Japan and the EU called yesterday for “highly ambitious and binding” global targets in the fight against climate change, amid slow-moving talks on a post-Kyoto treaty.“Japan and the EU stress that a highly ambitious and binding international approach is required to deal with the scale and urgency of the climate change challenge,” a joint statement from the leaders at a summit said.
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and EU leaders including European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso held talks in Tokyo ahead of July’s G8 summit.
Japan, the host of the G8 summit, hopes to use the event to shape the course of negotiations on a pact on global warming to cover the period after 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol’s obligations on slashing greenhouse gases expire.
Barroso hailed the joint statement as a “convergence” in positions between the EU and Japan.
“What we reached today was very important. There must be binding targets,” Barroso told a joint press conference with Fukuda.
But the Japan-EU statement did not give a specific figure for binding cuts.
The EU has proposed global emission reductions of 25 percent to 40 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels in a bid to stem global warming, which UN scientists warn could put millions of people at risk by century’s end.
Japan has joined the US in saying it is too early to take up numbers for future emission cuts, in negotiations aimed at meeting a UN-backed deadline to come up with a post-Kyoto deal by the end of next year.
But stung by environmentalists’ criticism, Japan said earlier this year that it would set its own national target for emissions reductions after 2012.
The joint statement said Fukuda and EU leaders “share the view that setting mid-term quantified national emissions reduction targets is an essential element of such a framework” to fight global warming.
Japan is far behind in meeting its Kyoto obligations as its economy recovers from a recession.
The US is the only major industrial nation to reject Kyoto, with President George W. Bush arguing that it is too costly and unfair to make no demands of fast-growing emerging economies.
But all three candidates to succeed Bush have pledged tougher action against global warming. The UN climate chief, Yvo de Boer, has said that a decision on the next global goal in emissions cuts would likely wait until the next US administration takes office in January.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS