Jan 27 - The Yomiuri Shimbun


The Japanese government officially decided Tuesday that it would participate in the Copenhagen climate agreement and pledge to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, government officials said.

The government submitted a document outlining the goal and measures to realize it to the secretariat office of the accord, they said.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, Environment Minister Sakihito Ozawa and other ministers concerned met on the day at a ministerial committee on the matter, where they agreed to the policy.

The government, however, added to the document a condition that major countries of the world participate in the treaty with aggressive reduction targets.

 The Copenhagen Accord, which was tentatively agreed to last month at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, sets a broad goal of endorsing the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol.

Delegates agreed to "take note of" the accord at the final plenary session of the conference but no consensus was reached to officially approve it.

Countries that agree to participate in the accord, which is not legally binding, are asked to submit reduction goals and specific measures to the secretariat.

With the decision, the Japanese government plans to submit a bill on a basic law on measures to fight global warming, which will stipulate the 25 percent reduction target and concrete measures to realize the goal.

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