Japan said yesterday it plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of 8 percent from 1990 levels by the end of the next decade, a goal attacked as too little by environmentalists.
Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said the new target matches the levels pledged by the EU and the US.
“I have decided to aim at a 15 percent reduction from 2005,” Aso told a news conference — setting a target that translates to an 8 percent cut from 1990 levels, the benchmark year used in UN talks.
“Japan must take the initiative in spearheading a global trend,” Aso said, arguing that the target surpasses US and European goals because, unlike theirs, it does not factor in carbon trading or sequestration through forestry.
The world’s fifth-biggest greenhouse gas emitter has been under huge pressure from developing nations to opt for deep reductions to ensure a strong outcome from talks in Copenhagen on a new global climate pact talks at the end of the year.
Yesterday’s announcement puts Japan above both the EU and US targets compared with their 2005 levels, and somewhere between the two under the 1990 baseline.
The EU has set its 2020 reduction target at 20 percent below 1990 levels, which is equivalent of a cut of about 14 percent from 2005 levels. US President Barack Obama’s pledge to bring US emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020 is an equivalent of 14 percent from 2005.
“Prime Minister Aso’s reported plan is appalling,” said Kim Carstensen, head of WWF’s Global Climate Initiative, before Aso’s press conference. “The new Aso target would mean that Japan effectively gives dirty industries the freedom to pollute without limits for eight years.”
“Countries such as Japan must be willing to commit to deeper cuts in emissions if they are to encourage developing countries such as India and China to also make cuts to their emissions,” said Matthew Clarke, associate professor at the School of International and Political Studies at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia.
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