Japan seeks climate deal on emission cuts, financial aid, new deadline+

TOKYO, Dec. 2 Kyodo -
Japan expects an upcoming U.N. climate conference to produce a deal that will
involve countries' efforts to slash greenhouse gas emissions, financial support
for developing nations to address climate change and a new deadline for
adopting a legally binding framework, Environment Minister Sakihito Ozawa said
Wednesday.
''We believe it is important to achieve agreement on final legally binding text
as soon as possible after the COP15,'' Ozawa told a luncheon at the Foreign
Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo.
At the U.N. talks in Copenhagen from next Monday, known as COP15, participants
had originally aimed to agree on a new legally binding framework to succeed the
1997 Kyoto Protocol on tackling global warming, which will expire in 2012.
But they have given up that goal due to time constraints and instead are
striving to reach a ''politically binding'' accord.
Ozawa lauded China and the United States for recently unveiling new
emission-reduction targets, saying their action ''has increased international
momentum for the idea that the COP15 must be successful.''
''The negotiations will be complex, with a high degree of difficulty, but I
believe it is possible to achieve a historic politically binding agreement,''
he said. ''I am ready to exercise leadership in the international negotiations
and will make utmost efforts so that the greatest possible results will be
achieved.''
China said last week it will cut carbon intensity, a measure of carbon dioxide
emissions per unit of gross domestic product, by 40 to 45 percent by 2020 from
the 2005 level, while the United States suggested it will curb heat-trapping
gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020. The two countries are the
world's two major greenhouse gas emitters.
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama of the Democratic Party of Japan has
pledged on the world stage that the nation will trim its greenhouse gas
emissions by 25 percent by 2020 compared with 1990 levels.
The Copenhagen talks, which will run through Dec. 18, are expected to witness
sharp differences between developed and developing countries over numerical
medium-term emission-cut targets by industrialized economies, non-binding
actions by industrializing economies to mitigate climate change, the amount of
financial support and how such aid money should be managed.
Ozawa said Tokyo is ready to offer $9.2 billion as near-term aid by 2012 for
developing countries to grapple with climate change, and present an additional
amount during the Copenhagen talks. The $9.2 billion package consists of
existing initiatives announced by the previous Japanese government led by the
Liberal Democratic Party.
As Hatoyama has introduced Japan's 25 percent emissions-cut goal provided that
other major emitters such as the United States, China and India join a new
international framework on curbing global warming, the minister said it is
''meaningless'' for Tokyo to endorse any system that would not entail reduction
efforts by those emitters.
However, he stopped short of declaring Japan could ditch the 25 percent
reduction goal if the precondition is not met, saying the nation set the
ambitious target to ''save the earth.''
As a measure to achieve the 25 percent cut goal, Ozawa said the Environment
Ministry has tabled a plan to introduce a carbon tax to secure 2 trillion yen
in additional annual financial needs to fight against climate change in Japan.
The duty will cover all types of fossil fuels, he added.
==Kyodo