Japan panel to discuss mid-term emission targets

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's top climate policy advisory panel is to discuss next week scenarios on how much Japan would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, a government official who is familiar with the issue said on Thursday.

A draft report of researcher estimates for the panel showed six main scenarios. The most moderate one, in which the corporate sector just extends current voluntary efforts, is expected to boost emissions by 6 percent from 1990.

The toughest aims at cutting emissions by 25 percent during the same period, which is achievable without curbing corporate activity, if a set of decisive policy steps are in place, including boosting solar power capacity 70 times higher than in 2005 to 100 gigawatts, the report, obtained by Reuters, showed.

Prime Minister Taro Aso said last week Japan is to unveil its medium-term target by June.

But its reluctance to commit fully to U.N. talks aiming at replacement for the Kyoto Protocol by the year-end has fueled criticism by developing countries that rich nations should lead the charge in lowering emissions blamed for global warming.

A lack of concrete policy proposals to meet these scenarios shows how far Japan still lags. The European Union has launched a trading scheme to cap emissions and said the region would cut them by 20 percent by 2020 from 1990.

The United States, not bound to the Kyoto Protocol, has said it was ready to lead the fight against global warming.

Japan is the world's fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases and is a long way from meeting its obligations under the Kyoto pact to cut them by 6 percent from 1990 over 2008-2012.

Japan has pledged to cut emissions by 60-80 percent from 2005 by 2050, but stopped short of a medium-term goal as some industry sectors argue their competitiveness would be hurt by spending extra to improve already energy efficient factories.

Japan, which depends on imports for its oil, is already more energy efficient than the United States or the EU, needing only to save half the energy costs to deliver the same value in terms of gross domestic product.

So, even if Japan makes expenditures comparable to the EU's to meet its pledge to cut 20 percent by 2020, Japan would be able to cut fewer emissions than the EU.

(Editing by Keiron Henderson)