Japan eyes energy-efficiency targets for emerging economies

TOKYO, April 24 Kyodo -
Emerging countries need to be obliged to fulfill energy-efficiency targets
under a new international framework for the fight against global warming beyond
the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012, according to a draft new protocol
presented Friday by Japan.
In the draft submitted to the secretariat of the U.N. Framework Convention on
Climate Change, Japan, in an apparent reference to emerging economies like
China, said countries that considerably contribute to emissions of global
greenhouse gases and have capacity to deal with the situation appropriately
have to meet energy-efficiency targets.
The draft written by Japan in the form of a protocol replacing the Kyoto pact
also says measures taken by developing countries against global warming should
be legally binding.
All developing countries have to present actions plans containing policies and
measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it says.
The 1997 Kyoto Protocol requires industrialized countries to reduce their
greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by an average of at least 5 percent
between 2008 and 2012, with country-by-country reduction targets set for them.
The draft says country-by-country emission reduction targets should be
continued to be set for developed countries but does not refer to any average
number for emission reductions by the whole of developed countries.
In the preface of the draft, the government says global greenhouse gas
emissions should be halved by 2050 from the current level.
Negotiations for a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol are scheduled to
conclude at a key U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen in December.
The chief of the U.N. climate convention's special working panel is requesting
each country to present opinions so that the negotiations can be concluded at
the Copenhagen meeting.
==Kyodo