Ministers compile draft climate bill stipulating 25% cut goal+

TOKYO, March 11 Kyodo -
Cabinet ministers compiled Thursday a draft climate bill for its official
adoption on Friday, which stipulates Japan's goal of slashing its greenhouse
gas emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 and measures to realize
the target, such as emissions trading scheme, carbon tax and incentives to
boost renewable energies.

The ministers overcame differences over the architecture of the envisioned
emissions trading mechanism, and the promotion of nuclear power generation as a
step to implement the emissions-cut goal.
The draft bill on basic policies to curb global warming stipulates the 25
percent emissions-cut target is premised on an agreement on ambitious targets
by all the major economies and the establishment of a fair and effective
international framework to tackle climate change.
It also includes a longer-term goal of cutting emissions by 80 percent by 2050
compared to 1990 levels.
In a meeting of the Cabinet ministers, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told them
that the country will face ''the moment of truth from now on'' to kick-start
measures to slash heat-trapping gas emissions.
As for the design of the emissions trading scheme, the ministers agreed on a
compromise deal to basically adopt the principle of setting an overall ceiling
for emissions to ensure their reduction, but also to ''consider'' allowing for
setting an emissions ceiling per unit of production for some industries.
Representatives of businesses such as steelmakers and power companies, labor
unions and the industry ministry had called for the introduction of ceiling
based on units of production due to concerns about negative impacts on the
economy.
But the approach would theoretically allow emissions to increase as long as
production volumes grow, and conservation groups as well as the environment and
foreign ministries had advocated the overall cap to ensure emissions cuts.
Environment Minister Sakihito Ozawa told reporters that the ministers agreed on
keeping two options open ''in view of achieving both the environment protection
and economic growth.''
''We created the outline of the emissions trading mechanism that would remove
obstacles to economic growth but also control the overall carbon dioxide
emissions,'' Ozawa said. ''We will draft another bill involving specific details
about the emissions trading scheme in one year.''
The envisioned legislation also says Japan will promote nuclear power
generation to implement the emissions-cut goal, despite reluctance on the part
of the Social Democratic Party, one of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan's
two coalition partners.
Ozawa said the SDP finally gave in to the majority's view among the ministers
that the nation should rely on nuclear power to trim emissions.
The draft bill also includes steps to boost renewable energy, setting a target
of increasing the ratio of primary energy supply from such sources to 10
percent by 2020. To that end, the government will adopt a mechanism to require
utility firms to buy all the electricity generated with renewable energy at
fixed prices.
Moreover, the envisioned legislation calls for introducing a carbon tax in
fiscal 2011.
Oxfam International immediately released its criticism of the draft climate
bill for ''watering down the country's responsibility to contribute to global
efforts to tackle climate change.''
Jeremy Hobbs, Oxfam International's executive director who is on a Tokyo visit
to meet with Japanese government officials, said the Japanese Cabinet ''failed
to provide international leadership, which was desperately needed to build
trust between developed and developing countries,'' according to a press
release.
Hobbs especially criticized the draft bill for allowing an approach that could
lead to an increase in industries' overall emissions and for making the 25
percent emissions-cut goal conditional.
He urged the Japanese parliament to review the legislation ''in light of the
country's global responsibility to mitigate climate change, whose impacts are
already hitting the poorest people and countries hardest.''
==Kyodo
2010-03-11 23:15:34


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