BONN: Japan on Wednesday will unveil a target of reducing its greenhouse-gas emissions by seven percent by 2020 compared with 1990 levels, Japanese campaigners said on Tuesday at the UN climate talks here.
They lashed the reported goal as pitiful, saying it marked a mere one-percentage-point fall over Japan's target for 2012 under the Kyoto Protocol, the treaty set to be superseded by a far more ambitious global pact.
The target will be announced by the government as part of a larger strategy for tackling climate change, said Kimiko Hirata of Kiko Network, part of an alliance of green groups called the Climate Action Network (CAN).
In formal terms, the government would set the goal of reducing greenhouse gases by 14 percent by 2020 over 2005 levels, which would translate into a seven percent decline over 1990, the benchmark used in the UN negotiations, she said.
Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, Japan agreed to curb emissions of six heat-trapping gases by six percent by the end of 2012 over 1990 levels.
"The (government) responds to industry, not to science," said Hirata, saying that Japanese corporations had lobbied the government to skirt deep commitments.
Using the 2005 benchmark would wipe out a surge in emissions that occurred from 1990 until the middle of this decade, but neatly accommodate an expected fall as a result of the current recession, the campaigners said.
In 2007, Japanese emissions of heat-trapping gases were nine percent above their 1990 levels.
Talks are unfolding in Bonn under the 192-party UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for hammering out a negotiation blueprint leading to the new treaty.
If all goes well, the accord would be completed in Copenhagen in December and take effect beyond 2012, superseding the current provisions of the Kyoto Protocol.
It would identify targets for reducing emissions by 2020 and 2050, identify which countries would be bound to a legally-enforceable goal, and open up lines of finance to help poor countries that are most exposed to climate change.
The European Union (EU) has committed to a 20% reduction by 2020, deepened to 30% if others follow suit.
By comparison, a bill making its way through the US Congress would reduce America's emissions by 17% by 2020, but also uses the 2005 as the base year. This would be equivalent to a reduction of four percent over 1990.
Big developing countries are now major polluters, but have so far refused to make any binding commitment for 2020 and beyond, saying this could impede their rise out of poverty.