G8 climate talks to seek momentum on emission cuts
Reuters
First Posted 11:26:00 05/24/2008
KOBE, Japan -- Environment ministers from rich countries and other major greenhouse gas emitters gathered in western Japan from Saturday for talks on ways to curb emissions, save species from extinction and cut back on trash.
The three-day meeting of the Group of Eight and rapidly growing economies such as China and India comes as pressure grows for both developed and developing countries to tackle climate change, blamed for droughts, rising seas and more intense storms.
Delegates meeting in the port city of Kobe will be tasked with building momentum for talks on setting long-term targets to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, an issue to be taken up at a leaders' summit in July.
G8 leaders agreed last year in Germany to consider seriously a goal to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, a proposal backed by Japan, the European Union and Canada.
But developing countries, keen to put economic growth first, have balked at signing up on the goal without the United States doing more to cut emissions and insist rich countries help poorer ones pay for clean technology.
"We need to send a message that we will make it easier for emerging countries to act, with financial mechanisms and technological cooperation," Japanese Environment Minister Ichiro Kamoshita told reporters before the meeting kicked off.
"At the same time, the G8 must make clear their stance that they will act firmly," he said.
South African Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said it was vital for the G8 to show leadership.
"In Kobe, we expect our partners in the G8 to champion the developing countries' cause by explicitly addressing the means of implementation (technology transfer and financing) that will enable and support mitigation and adaptation in developing countries at the scale required," he told Reuters in an email.
"If they do so, they will be surprised by the goodwill, trust and action that it will unlock," he said.
In a move that could boost pressure on rich countries to set bold targets, Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said on Friday that Jakarta planned to cut greenhouse gas emissions from its energy sector by 17 percent by 2025.
The United Nation's top climate change official urged the G8 nations to show leadership and set shorter-term goals than 2050 to help guide billions of dollars of investment.
Many countries favor new targets for 2020 after the first period of the UN Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012.
"I think the private sector is crying out for an investment perspective," Yvo de Boer told Reuters before heading to Kobe.
Eager to show off its green credentials at the meeting, Japan has sent fuel-cell and hybrid cars from its world-class carmakers to pick up delegates from the airport, and has called on participants to bring their own cups and chopsticks to cut trash.
The dress code will be "cool biz" -- a Japanese campaign every summer for office workers to take off jackets and ties to minimize air conditioning and reduce emissions.
Japan is debating its own long-term reduction target and domestic media have urged the government to also set a mid-term goal to show Tokyo can take the lead on climate change at the G8 and in UN-led efforts for a new framework after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
About 190 nations have agreed to negotiate by the end of 2009 a successor treaty to the Kyoto pact, which binds 37 advanced nations to cut emissions by an average of five percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.
But countries are divided on how to shape the new framework and Japan may see limited support this weekend for its proposal for emissions curbs for particular industries, such as steel or cement, that could be added up to a national target.
Many developing nations worry that sector-based targets will throttle their energy-intensive growth.
The Kobe meeting will kick off with a session on biodiversity, which will review steps being taken for a UN goal set in 2002 to slow the rate of extinctions of living species by 2010. Most experts say that target is nowhere near being met.
Those discussions, which coincide with a UN conference in Germany, will include ways to combat illegal logging and reduce deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries.
Ministers will also talk about how to reduce, reuse and recycle waste.
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