ID :
406723
Mon, 05/16/2016 - 01:37
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G-7 Environment Ministers Start Talks on Global Warming

Toyama, May 15 (Jiji Press)--Environment ministers of the Group of Seven major nations started two days of talks in Toyama, central Japan, on Sunday to exchange views on measures to curb global warming. Discussions on Monday will focus on ways to bring the Paris Agreement, a new international treaty aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, into effect at an early date. The G-7 ministers will sum up their discussions in a joint statement the same day. Signatory countries to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change are required to submit long-term plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the United Nations by 2020. It will be closely watched whether the G-7 environment ministers will hammer out an agreement to bring forward the deadline. In an opening address on Sunday, Japanese Environment Minister Tamayo Marukawa, chair of the meeting in Toyama, said major progress was made in environment policies globally last year, including the adoption of the Paris Agreement at a U.N. conference on climate change in the French capital in December. "This year is the year of implementation when we need to take specific actions," she said. "I hope coordinated G-7 initiatives will be promoted further." Marukawa briefed participants on progress in the decontamination work in areas tainted with radioactive materials after the March 2011 accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s <9501> disaster-stricken Fukushima No. 1 plant. "Disaster areas are on track for reconstruction," she said. During a break of the meeting, light meals using ingredients from Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, were served to the environment ministers, according to Marukawa. Participants discussed the recycling of resources and agreed that the joint statement will include their efforts to create a new framework for promoting the reuse of resources, which will be named after the conference venue of Toyama. The meeting brought together the environment ministers of the G-7 countries---Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States--as well as the European Union. This is the first meeting of the G-7 environment ministers since the 2009 ministerial conference was held within the Group of Eight framework also including Russia. END

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