David Warren

Mr Hatoyama's comments on tackling climate change

A clear re-affirmation yesterday from Prime Minister-elect Hatoyama, at the Asahi newspaper's "World Environmental Conference",  that a Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) government will press ahead with their manifesto commitment to a 25% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020 (from 1990 levels) in the negotiations for a successor to the Kyoto framework at COP 15 in Copenhagen in December.  

It will have to be part of an overall deal to which developed and developing countries will contribute.   But this is good news, and evidence of the greater ambition for which we have been pressing the Japanese government this year.  And a desire by the new Government that Japan should be showing leadership in this debate - indeed, the Prime Minister-elect referred specifically to a new "Hatoyama Initiative".

The talk at the evening reception was all about this commitment.  The Danish Ambassador and I were invited to speak, as well as a long line of Japanese politicians and business representatives.  To be eighth out of about ten speakers is a cruel punishment for both the speaker and the audience, so I tried to keep it brief.  We haven't got long before Copenhagen.   We can't afford to lower our sights, if we're going to ensure that global emissions peak within the next 10 years and we keep the increase in global temperature to within 2 degrees.  And investment in the "Green New Deal" will help make economies grow, not (as some in Japanese industry fear) shrink.

Posted at 16:14 08 September 2009 by David Warren  |  Comments[3]