U.N. chief asks Aso to set ambitious CO2 cut target for 2020+

TOKYO, June 5 Kyodo -
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on Friday requested that Japanese Prime
Minister Taro Aso set an ''ambitious'' target for Japan's greenhouse gas
emissions for 2020 to tackle global warming, Foreign Ministry officials said.
In telephone conversations, Ban told Aso that it is important for
industrialized nations to exercise leadership by setting ambitious targets so
that developing nations shoulder a fair share, the officials said.
Ban also said he is looking to Japan for leadership at a key U.N. climate
change conference in Copenhagen in December to adopt a new climate treaty to
succeed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, the officials said.
According to government sources, the prime minister responded that the
government has to overcome some opposition within the country.
The prime minister plans to announce the national medium-term reductions target
on Wednesday, but the government is facing difficulty in consolidating the
target as the views of the business community and environmental groups differ
on the issue.
One option under consideration -- a 7 percent cut in emissions of carbon
dioxide and other greenhouse gases for 2020 from 1990 levels -- is opposed by
the Japan Business Federation and some other business groups for being too big,
while environmental groups and experts have called for a more ambitious target.
Aso also told Ban that the government's basic policy in setting the medium-term
target is that it needs to encourage major emitters such as the United States,
China and India to participate in the new framework and that the target must be
economically feasible, the officials said.
Speaking to reporters in the evening, Aso reiterated that the target must be
''something that is achievable, and that will contribute to (the prevention) of
global warming and can be participated in by the three major emitters,''
referring to the three countries.
Aso also said that he needs to take into account other matters such as the
reduction target's possible impact on Japan's industrial competitiveness and
the burden to be shouldered by each household.
On a resolution which the U.N. Security Council plans to adopt in response to
North Korea's second nuclear test, Ban said it is important for the Security
Council to act in a concerted manner, while the issue is a global one in regard
to nuclear arms reduction and nonproliferation.
Aso expressed the view that Pyongyang's nuclear test poses a threat to Japan as
well as to the peace and stability in Northeast Asia and the global community,
and added that the second nuclear test, which was conducted after North Korea
ignored calls from the global community not to carry it out, is unacceptable.
==Kyodo