Japan PM: G8 not forum for mid-term CO2 cut goals
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TOKYO, June 17 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said on Tuesday that the Group of Eight summit he will host next month is not the appropriate forum for agreeing on mid-term goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Fukuda's remark comes amid fresh signs that Washington's stance is hampering efforts to make climate change a centrepiece at the July 7-9 summit in Hokkaido, northern Japan.
The G8 leaders are expected to formalise a goal agreed last year that global greenhouse gas emissions should be cut 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
Pressure is building, however, to set mid-term emissions reduction goals for 2020 to 2030 as well.
"As for medium-term targets, this is the core challenge for U.N. negotiations until the end of 2009. The G8 is not a forum to agree on that target," Fukuda said in a group interview with news agencies.
The United States has said it will accept binding emissions curbs, but only on condition that major developing emitters such as China and India also agree, something they have so far refused to do.
Washington wants a meeting of major emerging economies such as China, to be held on the summit sidelines, to be the main forum for discussing climate change.
Fukuda echoed the need for emerging economies to get on board in a framework to follow the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
"What is important is that all major economies participate in a responsible manner," he said.
Last December, 190 countries agreed on a two-year negotiating process to forge a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on cutting carbon emissions.
Kyoto's first phase obliges many industrialised nations to curb emissions between 2008-12 but excludes developing nations. Kyoto expires at the end of 2012 and the goal for the successor pact is to bind all nations to emissions cuts.
Big emerging economies such as China and India want rich nations to take bold steps first, including setting mid-term targets for reducing emissions by 2020 or 2030, a step already taken by the European Union.
"...I think it's very important not only to have a long-term target, but also to make a coupling to the necessity of having a mid-term target," Danish Climate and Energy Minister Connie Hedegaard told Reuters on Monday after meeting Fukuda.
"We must try to change this habit where everyone is waiting for everyone else to take the next step," she added. (Reporting by Linda Sieg; Editing by Rodney Joyce and Hugh Lawson)
TOKYO, June 17 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said on Tuesday that the Group of Eight summit he will host next month is not the appropriate forum for agreeing on mid-term goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Fukuda's remark comes amid fresh signs that Washington's stance is hampering efforts to make climate change a centrepiece at the July 7-9 summit in Hokkaido, northern Japan.
The G8 leaders are expected to formalise a goal agreed last year that global greenhouse gas emissions should be cut 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
Pressure is building, however, to set mid-term emissions reduction goals for 2020 to 2030 as well.
"As for medium-term targets, this is the core challenge for U.N. negotiations until the end of 2009. The G8 is not a forum to agree on that target," Fukuda said in a group interview with news agencies.
The United States has said it will accept binding emissions curbs, but only on condition that major developing emitters such as China and India also agree, something they have so far refused to do.
Washington wants a meeting of major emerging economies such as China, to be held on the summit sidelines, to be the main forum for discussing climate change.
Fukuda echoed the need for emerging economies to get on board in a framework to follow the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
"What is important is that all major economies participate in a responsible manner," he said.
Last December, 190 countries agreed on a two-year negotiating process to forge a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on cutting carbon emissions.
Kyoto's first phase obliges many industrialised nations to curb emissions between 2008-12 but excludes developing nations. Kyoto expires at the end of 2012 and the goal for the successor pact is to bind all nations to emissions cuts.
Big emerging economies such as China and India want rich nations to take bold steps first, including setting mid-term targets for reducing emissions by 2020 or 2030, a step already taken by the European Union.
"...I think it's very important not only to have a long-term target, but also to make a coupling to the necessity of having a mid-term target," Danish Climate and Energy Minister Connie Hedegaard told Reuters on Monday after meeting Fukuda.
"We must try to change this habit where everyone is waiting for everyone else to take the next step," she added. (Reporting by Linda Sieg; Editing by Rodney Joyce and Hugh Lawson)
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