Japan Faces Criticism over Industry-Specific Emissions Targets at Climate Conference

Reviewed by Takahiro MIYAO

Article:
Japan Faces Criticism over Industry-Specific Emissions Targets at Climate Conference
International Herald Tribune (3/16/2008)
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/16/
asia/AS-GEN-Japan-Climate-Conference.php

Comments:

At a two-day gathering of twenty nations (G20) held in China, Japan, on March 14-16, there was an agreement among the representatives of those nations that a new approach would be needed to deal with global warming involving not only advanced countries but also developing countries such as China and India. However, Japan's proposal to adopt industry-specific caps for carbon dioxide emissions drew some criticisms, according to the newspaper report linked above.

Japan's "sectoral" approach is intended to use bottom-up guidelines for various industries and avoid arbitrary national target setting without regard for different conditions facing individual industries. But many participants worried that sectoral caps could be used as an excuse not to meet national reduction targets, and to favor certain industries or certain countries with more advanced technology.

It is widely known in the international community that Japan's proposal for the sectoral cap approach is based on its acceptance and endorsement by the Japanese business circle which has reluctantly accepted such an approach but definitely not any national target setting. This background has raised some skepticism about Japan's intention to make such a proposal. It may be necessary for Japan to set some kind of national target, despite possible oppositions by the business circle, and apply industry-specific targets within Japan to achieve such a national goal after all.

Acknowledgment:
This review is adopted from the following blog (with its Japanese translation):
http://glocom.blog59.fc2.com/blog-date-20080316.html