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WWF - Climate Change Campaign


Japan's Lack of Leadership Threatens Success of Kyoto Climate Change Summit

Streets of Japan August 7th, 1997

BONN, GERMANY, -- WWF sharply criticized the government of Japan, Tuesday, for slowing progress at the current United Nations climate change negotiations in Bonn by displaying internal confusion for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions and a complete lack of ambition for ultimately achieving a meaningful commitment to combat climate change. WWF believes Japan's actions seriously threaten the success of the Climate Change Summit that they will host in Kyoto at the end of this year.

WWF firmly believes that the Climate Change Summit can only be considered a success if there is agreement on binding targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Annex I countries by 20% below 1990 levels by 2005. To that end, WWF has produced a series of reports about the environmental destruction caused by climate change. In response, WWF has begun dialogues with industries around the world about practicing greater energy efficiency and renewable energy processes.

At a WWF symposium in Tokyo, Japan, last month attended by more than 190 Japanese business and industry leaders, it was evident that Japanese businesses are interested in reducing emissions and find it technologically and economically feasible to do so in the short- and long-term.

In July, WWF representatives from Europe and the US spent a week in Tokyo talking with business leaders and officials of government agencies including Ambassador Tanabe, MITI, the Environment Agency and NEDO. Industrialists from ENRON Corporation and AEG Household Appliances, representing the US and European Business Councils for Sustainable Energy also attended the symposium.

Conclusions from those meetings include:

  • There is a fatal flaw in the Japanese government's meagre ambition for a Kyoto Protocol containing a weak target, or no target, which would then be reviewed at a later date. Also, it does not provide the clarity of direction that investors in the energy industry require.

  • Such a weak Protocol would undermine industry's faith in the Convention process because it would not be effective in protecting the environment. And it would notencourage developing countries to become involved in later efforts. Japan must be more ambitious. Agreement on only a weak Protocol in Kyoto would be a disaster for Japan regarding public expectations and incentives for innovative industries in Japan, which have proven to implement a high level in energy efficiency.

  • Japan is concentrating too much on criticising the EU's position without coming forward with its own proposals.

  • There are now questions about the leadership of Toshiaki Tanabe, Japan Ambassador for Global Environmental Affairs, because of his inability to unify the conflicting views of MITI and the Japan's Environment Agency.

  • Whereas Japan once lead the world in energy efficiency, some European countries now perform just as well. And Europe is now more ambitious than Japan in its current and future use of co-generation, the use of natural gas and expansion of renewable energy.

  • It is a myth that Japan has done all it can to improve energy efficiency. In the steel industry, for instance, efficiency gains of 24% would be possible by 2005. A published report from the National Institute for Environmental Studies says that carbon dioxide reductions of 6.1 to 7.6 % would be possible in Japan by 2010. WWF has commissioned two Japanese experts to report on what policies and measures can be used to reduce the country's carbon dioxide emissions for distribution before the Kyoto Summit.