Japan presses China to raise emissions-cut target to curb warming+

TOKYO, April 13 Kyodo -
Japan urged China on Tuesday to raise its current target for mitigating its
greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 as the country is now the world's biggest
emitter of carbon dioxide, but Beijing defended the goal, saying it represents
the ''maximum efforts'' that can be made by the nation, Japanese officials
said.
Industry Minister Masayuki Naoshima and Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada met
separately with Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of China's National Development and
Reform Commission, to press Beijing to present a goal more ambitious than the
current target of trimming its CO2 emissions per unit of gross domestic product
by 40 to 45 percent in 2020 from 2005, they said.
The two ministers stressed that Japan's aim to cut its greenhouse gas emissions
by 25 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels is premised on agreement on ambitious
targets by all major economies.
Naoshima said Japan is only responsible for some 4 percent of total CO2
emissions in the world and that Tokyo cannot gain domestic support for its
emissions-cut target, which is one of the most ambitious goals, if other major
emitters do not present equally ambitious commitments, the officials said.
The industry minister also requested that China indicate when the country's
fast-rising CO2 emissions will likely peak out, but Xie only said Beijing needs
Japan's technical support in its efforts to have its emissions peak out soon,
they said.
Okada said the next round of a key U.N. climate conference to be held in Mexico
between late November and early December should aim at adopting a comprehensive
legal document that would craft a fair and effective international framework
involving major economies.
Both Okada and Naoshima said Japan cannot accept a situation in which only the
obligations to cut emissions by developed countries that are parties to the
1997 Kyoto Protocol will continue beyond 2012.
The current commitment period for developed countries to slash greenhouse gas
emissions under the Kyoto pact will expire in 2012. China and the United
States, the world's second-biggest CO2 emitter that has not ratified the
protocol, are not bound by mandatory emissions reductions under the pact.
Xie responded that the U.S. withdrawal from the Kyoto pact has caused
difficulty in current climate negotiations, according to the officials.
Emissions by developed countries that are parties to the protocol only account
for some 30 percent of the world's total CO2 emissions.
==Kyodo