ENVIRONMENT: Race is on to Ensure Tokyo Sticks to Kyoto Pact

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Jul 13 2001 (IPS) - The race is on to find ways to make sticking to the Kyoto protocol on climate change politically palatable for Japan, whose support is vital to keep the accord alive in global talks that begin next week.

Thus far, the Japanese government continues to sit on the fence as the meeting of more than 100 governments opens in Bonn, Germany on Jul. 16.

It said this week it wants the U.S. government, which has rejected the accord, on board the Kyoto protocol and will keeping trying through various channels to get Washington back on track.

The stance of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has been to find a common approach, one that he hopes will get Washington back and not force Tokyo to decide on supporting it without its ally, the United States.

“We will seek the possibility of U.S. participation until the end,” Japanese Ambassador to the U.S. Shunji Yanai told Japanese reporters in Washington on Tuesday.

Earlier, Koizumi has said he has no intention of seeing the Kyoto accord with the United States. Later, he said “it is not yet time (for Japan) to make decision.”

But in the run-up to the Bonn talks, a mix of suggestions have come up on how to adjust some parts of the Kyoto protocol — or its implementation — to make sure Tokyo ratifies it and gives the needed votes to make it international law.

Japan’s Environment Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi, who says the European Union officials who visited Tokyo this week showed understanding of Japan’s efforts to talk to the United States, says Tokyo will not promote amendments to the Kyoto pact to make it more acceptable to the United States.

But local media has been hinting that her meeting with U.S. officials Saturday may produce a formula.

On Friday, the ‘Daily Yomiuri’ said Japan has begun to examine a new, delayed timetable for industrialised countries to meet their targets for reducing the production of greenhouse gases.

The ‘Daily Yomiuri’ also said Japan will make a proposal in Bonn to urge developed countries to submit “reports” on their efforts to achieve the Kyoto targets — a step that critics interpret as a delaying tactic until the next United Nations climate change talks in Morocco in October.

The use of technology and the expansion of flexible mechanisms such as emission trading — criticised as an escape hatch by environmentalists — is also expected to play a major role in talks on easing global warming.

Likewise, there is speculation about changes in the protocol that seek a commitment from developing countries, mainly China and India, toward decreasing their emissions.

Washington, which pulled of the Kyoto accord in March because it hurts the local economy, had argued that it was unequal because it did not call for responsibilities by poorer countries.

This was a sensitive issue during the Kyoto negotiations, where developing nations made it clear that it is the developed countries who produce most of the greenhouse gases that must bear the biggest responsibility in cutting emissions,

The 1997 Kyoto protocol requires industrialised countries to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by an average of 5.2 percent from 1990 levels during the period from 2008 to 2012.

Developing countries are not subject to legally binding reduction targets despite growing emissions. India registered 2.8 percent of the total in 1990 but is close to 4 percent in 1999.

The United States accounts for 36 percent of global emissions.

The Kyoto protocol will become international law if at least 55 countries accounting for 55 percent of the industrialised countries’ carbon dioxide emissions in 1990, ratify it.

Without American support, the Kyoto accord can go into effect only if Japan lines up with Europe and other nations to ratify it.

Whatever the efforts to get Japan in, however, experts say it is clear Tokyo is desperate to have the United States participate in the Kyoto pact.

“As a result, Tokyo has not yet formed an official position,” says Mitsuo Morimoto, an environmentalist who advises businesses.

The European Union has thrown its support behind the treaty and is turning the heat on Japan to do the same in a bid to make the treaty international law by next year.

EU officials went to Japan this week try to persuade Tokyo to support the protocol with or without the United States.

On Tuesday, Kawaguchi talked about “joint responsibility” with the EU to keep the Kyoto agreement alive, following a meeting with Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Lena Hjelm-Wallen.

Also Tuesday, British deputy premier John Prescott and Koizumi pledged to work in a “flexible manner”. Prescott came to Japan after visiting China and India to discuss climate change issues.

An official of the Environment Ministry’s global warming section points out that contrary to the EU’s call for going ahead, the Kyoto pact is simply not complete without the cooperation of the United States.

“The United States is the world’s biggest polluter,” he said, asking not to be named. “This makes it important to have Washington on board.”

Still, Kazue Suzuki, global warming expert at Greenpeace Japan, says Tokyo will not be able to back track from accepting the international pact that carries the country’s ancient capital’s name without sizable harm to its international standing.

“I don’t see how Japan can say no to joining the European Union against the current backdrop,” she said.