Japan will cut its greenhouse gas emissions by between 60 percent and 80 percent by 2050 and can match or better European reduction levels over the next 12 years, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda announced yesterday.
Fukuda, trying to establish Japan as a world leader in the field, also said his country will contribute US$1.2 billion to an international greenhouse gas reductions fund and will take a more supportive role in establishing an emissions trading market worldwide.
Fukuda, who will host a meeting of the leaders of the G8 developed countries in Japan next month, said he hopes to use that summit to help create an international consensus about measures to deal with greenhouse gas reduction.
Japan, which Fukuda said is already a leader in the worldwide effort to reduce greenhouse gases, is willing to take difficult measures to set an example for others.
“All nations of the world, including our own, must participate in this effort to make it work,” he said in a policy speech. “We can bolster Japan’s standing in international society and strengthen our economy further by taking a leading role in the CO2 reduction revolution.”
To show its resolve, Fukuda said Japan will reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 60 percent to 80 percent by 2050 as part of what he has dubbed Japan’s “Cool Earth Initiative.” He also called on the nations of the world to strive to cut by half the global carbon dioxide output by 2050. G8 summit leaders voiced support for that last year.
Fukuda acknowledged that is a tall order.
Japan is struggling to meet obligations under the Kyoto global warming pact to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 6 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
Fukuda said that although Japan’s carbon dioxide emissions have been rising slightly in recent years, they are expected to peak soon. He said a reduction of 14 percent from current levels is possible by Japan over the next 12 years.
European nations support a UN scientific finding that emissions cuts of between 25 percent to 40 percent by 2020 are needed to stop global temperatures from rising so high that they trigger widespread environmental damage.
Realistically, however, Fukuda said the EU nations are looking at a reduction of about 14 percent from current levels, a target he said Japan can match. The EU’s higher numbers are based on reductions from 1990 levels — the baseline used in the Kyoto talks.
While saying a 14 percent reduction was possible, Fukuda stopped short of formally setting a 2020 target, saying he would do that later.
The US, which has refused to set similar targets, considers such cuts beyond reach. Developing nations, meanwhile, are clamoring for commitments by rich countries before they discuss what poorer countries should do.
On the controversial topic of emissions trading, Fukuda said Japan will take a more supportive role in establishing rules and a framework that can be agreed upon internationally.
“It is important to create a market that is based on healthy, real demand, not on a money game,” he said.
Fukuda said Japan will start a trial emissions market domestically later this year.
Japan’s top industries have long argued against mandatory emissions reductions, saying the current voluntary system under which they set their own targets is sufficient.
Fukuda said Japan would use a broad range of strategies to reduce its emissions, including investment in new technologies, stiff construction standards to create energy efficient buildings, an array of tax incentives and a public awareness campaign.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not