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G8: ‘Make Or Break on Climate Change’

Ramesh Jaura

TOKYO, Jul 4 2008 (IPS) - Japan is preparing to test its leadership role at the summit meeting of seven western industrial democracies and Russia (G8) Jul. 7-9 in Toyako on the northern island of Hokkaido.

Japan considers the summit meeting “historic”, a senior foreign ministry official said.

For the first time in the course of G8 meetings and their predecessors since 1975, the G8 countries (Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan, Canada and the United States) will hold discussions with as many as 14 heads of state and government from Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America in three ‘outreach’ groups.

The official said he hoped the meeting would prove historic in sending a “strong message” to the international community in addressing major issues of concern to the world: development, global food, energy, financial stability, nuclear non-proliferation and climate change.

The first round of discussions spread over four hours on the first day of the summit will include seven African leaders – three more than at last year’s G8 – from Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania – as well as the chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission.

The meeting, to be attended also by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and World Bank president Robert Zoellick will focus on African development by achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 and addressing global food security.

Another workshop – on the last day of the summit – with the leaders of Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Korea and South Africa, described as major economies – will be devoted to environment and climate change.

These meetings follow those last year at the Heiligendamm summit in Germany with the Outreach Five (O5) comprising the leaders of Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.

A background paper by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) says that Prime Minister Yasuo Fakuda wants the G8 to send “a strong message to the world for development of a post-2012 framework on climate change (after the commitment period of Kyoto Protocol) to be advanced through the UN process.

“Japan will demonstrate leadership in discussions on climate change, aiming to attain understanding and agreement of each country for Japan’s proposals,” the background paper says.

In line with German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s statement Jun. 1 at the Japan-Germany summit, Japan wishes to advance further the Heiligendamm agreement of last year. The G8 agreed last year to “seriously consider cutting global greenhouse gas emissions by at least half by 2050 from the current levels.”

The paper quotes Prime Minister Fakuda as saying: “It is essential to have a ‘total participation’ framework that includes all the major economies, not just the EU and Japan.” He adds: “Japan will negotiate tenaciously in order to build international agreement on fair and equitable rules which are approved by all.”

The MOFA paper says that the Kyoto Protocol, agreed in December 1997, is an “epoch-making first step in reducing emissions.” But “the total amount of emissions from ratifiers that are obligated to reduce is still about 30 percent of the world.”

In view of this, Prime Minister Fakuda is proposing:

– Japan, along with other major emitters, will establish quantified national targets for emissions reduction.

– The target could be based on a bottom-up approach by compiling energy efficiency on a sectoral basis and tallying up the reduction volume.

– The base year should be reviewed.

Concretely, in the post-Kyoto framework, Japan wants to move away from 1990 as the base for carbon dioxide (CO2) reductions, agreed in Kyoto.

This is expected to make Japan’s leadership at the summit an extremely challenging task. This is admitted by Japanese officials involved in the G8 Hokkaido summit preparations. “We know it is a make or break issue,” an official told IPS.

Japan’s long-term goal is to achieve a 60-80 percent reduction in emissions from the current level by 2050. The medium-term goal is a 14 percent reduction by 2020 compared to 2005 levels by 2020.

Japan is, in any case, determined to contribute up to 1.2 billion dollars to a new multilateral fund which it is establishing with Britain and the U.S. The fund will assist developing countries in addressing climate change.

Japan is expected to propose an International Partnership for Environment and Energy “to share a global roadmap for innovative technological development looking 30-40 years ahead by having the international community work in unison, to advance technological development.”

The achievement of this partnership is also to be shared with developing countries, says the MOFA background document.