JAPAN: May 26, 2008


KOBE, Japan - Big emerging economies called on rich countries to help finance clean energy technologies on Saturday as a meeting of environment ministers sought to add momentum to the fight against climate change.


Ministers and their representatives said on Saturday that action was urgently needed to curb greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, but advanced and developing countries are split on how to share the burden.

The three-day meeting of the Group of Eight and rapidly growing economies such as China and India comes as poor countries balk at global targets to cut emissions, demanding that rich nations cut their own and pay for costly clean energy projects.

Brazil's top delegate said it was vital for developed countries to pass on know-how and help fund research for new technologies.

"Certainly the private sector has an important role to play ... but we think that states also and governments have a role to play in helping developing countries to develop technology," Ana Maria Fernandes told the meeting.

The United States, in talks with Japan, called for a global fund for clean technology research, while Tokyo said the G8 must show initiative so poorer countries can do their part in fighting climate change, blamed for droughts, rising seas and more intense storms.

"We need to send a message that we will make it easier for emerging countries to act, with financial mechanisms and technological cooperation," Japanese Environment Minister Ichiro Kamoshita told reporters.

"At the same time, the G8 must make clear their stance that they will act firmly," he said.


TECH AND FINANCE

Delegates, meeting in the port city of Kobe, aim to build momentum for talks on setting long-term targets to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, an issue to be taken up at a leaders' summit in July.

G8 leaders agreed last year in Germany to consider seriously a goal to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, a proposal favoured by Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Japan and Canada.

But developing countries, keen to put growth first, have resisted targets without the United States doing more to cut emissions.

"Technology and finance should be taken up in discussions," said China's Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission.

"China's government will be responsible for its actions and we will have to face up to the challenges."

Eager to show off its green credentials at the meeting, Japan has sent fuel-cell and hybrid cars to pick up delegates from the airport, and has called on participants to bring their own cups and chopsticks to cut trash.

The dress code is "cool biz" -- a Japanese campaign every summer for office workers to take off jackets and ties to minimise air conditioning and reduce emissions.

But most delegates declined to go casual.

Japan is debating its own long-term reduction target and domestic media have urged the government to also set a mid-term goal to show Tokyo can take the lead on climate change at the G8 and in UN-led efforts for a new framework after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

About 190 nations have agreed to negotiate by the end of 2009 a successor treaty to the Kyoto pact, which binds 37 advanced nations to cut emissions by an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.

But countries are divided on how to shape the new framework and Japan may see limited support this weekend for its proposal for emissions curbs for particular industries, such as steel or cement, that could be added up to a national target.

Many developing nations worry that sector-based targets will throttle their energy-intensive growth.

The Kobe meeting kicked off with a session on biodiversity, including steps taken so far toward a UN goal set in 2002 to slow the rate of extinctions of living species by 2010. Most experts say that target is nowhere near being met. The talks also touched on the need to protect forests to fight global warming and preserve diversity of species.

(Additional reporting by Linda Sieg, Risa Maeda and Kentaro Hamada in Kobe)


Story by Chisa Fujioka


REUTERS NEWS SERVICE