Japan, U.S. aiming for successful Copenhagen climate talks+

TOKYO, Nov. 13 Kyodo -
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed
Friday to cooperate for a successful outcome at a key U.N. climate conference
in Copenhagen next month, which is designed to produce a deal on a new
framework to fight global warming.
''We discussed how we can work together to pave the way for a successful
outcome in Copenhagen next month,'' Obama told a joint press conference with
Hatoyama.
The Japanese prime minister said he and Obama reaffirmed during their summit
talks that the two countries will aspire to cut their emissions by 80 percent
by 2050 and cooperate on achieving success at the Copenhagen meeting slated for
Dec. 7 to 18.
Hatoyama said ''various challenges remain,'' including how to involve China, a
major greenhouse gas emitter, in the climate negotiations.
The two leaders issued a ''joint message on climate change negotiations,'' in
which they also pledged to support efforts by ''the poor and most vulnerable''
nations to combat climate change.
As members of the Group of Eight major economies, Japan and the United States
pledged in July in L'Aquila, Italy, to aim for 80 percent emissions reductions
by 2050 and for halving global greenhouse gas emissions by that time.
However, they failed to touch on an emissions cut goal for developed countries
as a whole for 2020 as it is the focal point of current U.N. climate
negotiations.
In the summit talks, Hatoyama said the U.N. climate negotiations have ''entered
a critical stage'' and stressed the importance of involving all major
greenhouse gas emitters, while Obama said his government is placing high
priority on the issue, according to a Japanese government official.
The Japanese prime minister has pledged to seek to reduce the nation's
heat-trapping gas emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, provided
that other major emitters such as the United States, China and India join a new
international framework on curbing global warming.
The two leaders reaffirmed that ''shifting to low-carbon growth is
indispensable to the health of our planet and will play a central role in
reviving the global economy.''
They urged all major economies to ''take ambitious concrete actions'' with
developed countries setting emissions reduction targets and major developing
countries acting to significantly slash their emissions compared to business as
usual.
The document said efforts by all major economies must be ''subject to a robust
regime of reporting and international review.''
Sharp differences between developed and developing countries have cast a shadow
on the upcoming Copenhagen conference, which is intended to craft a new
framework to succeed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that will expire in 2012.
Industrialized nations are calling for emissions-cut commitments by
fast-growing major developing nations, such as China and India, which are
seeking significant reduction targets for developed countries as well as
financial and technical support to help them mitigate and adapt to climate
change.
==Kyodo