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Japan defends 2020 target
10 June, 2009
Japan has defended its 2020 emissions reduction target, announced today, in the face of criticism from the EU and NGOs.
Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso announced this morning that the country would aim to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 15% compared to 2005 levels by 2020 – a target which Greenpeace says is only 8% below 1990 levels. Under the Kyoto Protocol, which runs from 2008-12, Japan has pledged to reduce its GHG emissions to 6% below 1990 levels.
This target is “disappointing”, if compared to pledges from other parties, said Pavel Zamyslicky, director of climate change at the Czech environment ministry and head of the EU delegation. “It’s very far away from the general expectations.”
However, Kuni Shimada, one of the principal negotiators for Japan, stressed to Carbon Finance that the target “doesn’t include any offsets or sinks at this moment – so it’s purely domestic efforts”.
“I have to mention that, even though the NGOs and some European countries criticise us, I have to assert this is really an ambitious target for Japan,” he added, in an interview on the sidelines of the UN climate talks in Bonn.
UN climate change chief Yvo de Boer, when asked his opinion on the target, said to journalists: “For the first time in two and half years on this job, I don’t know what to say.” He later acknowledged how much Japan has already done to reduce its emissions.
The target would likely contribute to a 3°C increase in global temperatures, said Greenpeace and non-profit organisation Climate Analytics.
“Japan has utterly failed to take the opportunity to shift the country’s economic and industrial structure on to a low-carbon pathway and to develop more efficient and advanced technology which will create new business and employment opportunities through committing to a stringent reduction target,” said Yurika Ayukawa of Greenpeace.
The NGO added that Japan’s pledge will hinder progress on a post-2012 climate change treaty, the focus of the Bonn talks and intended to be finalised in Copenhagen in December. It also makes a strong pledge from the G8 unlikely, the group warned.
But Shimada said that the target “is a good start – and better than expected. Even myself, I was a little bit worried about getting a 7% reduction target, but now we have 15%.” He added that the reduction target could increase, once offsets and carbon sinks are included.
Shimada stressed that the target is based on scientific data, and was not a politically-driven decision – unlike the Kyoto Protocol targets, which he said Japan would struggle to meet. “I think these numbers are right and credible,” he added, referring to the Japanese proposal and a possible US target of a 17% cut below 2005 levels by 2020, contained in the Waxman-Markey bill working its way through Congress.
