Japan accused of stalling over climate change talks

18 August 1997 00:00  [Source: ICB]

The latest round of multi-party international negotiations on climate change has ended in Bonn 'in a sorry state', say environmental groups. Japan has now emerged as 'a major block' to any agreement on climate change, one group claimed.

A draft protocol was drawn up but critics say it contains too many loopholes and proposals for alternative texts. In effect, there was 'virtually no movement towards resolving the numerous issues dividing countries' during the talks.

The Bonn talks were the penultimate round of negotiations prior to the intergovernmental summit on climate change in Kyoto, Japan, this December.

However, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) claims: 'Japan's ability to effectively host December's climate summit in Kyoto is now in doubt.'

Japanese prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto agreed to the need for reductions of greenhouse gas emissions in June at the G7/G8 summit in Denver, US and at the Earth Summit II held in New York.

However Hashimoto conceded to delegates in Bonn 'no real reductions are possible', according to Climate Action Network, which represents 160 non-governmental organisations.

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WWF attacked Japan for stalling and trying to divert attention from its inaction by attacking the European Union (EU) proposal (ECN, 11 August 1997, page 43). 'Japan should come up with a proposal of its own before criticising other countries which have presented sedous proposals,' said Yurika Ayukawa of WWF Japan.

Rumours abounded at Bonn that Japan had drawn up a proposal for a protocol, but the Japanese delegation revealed no such proposal.

Japan looks likely to hold out until a ministerial climate change meeting in September.

The US has no concrete proposal for reducing emissions and may wait until October when it will hold similar talks at national level. President Bill Clinton met with industry leaders in the US during the Bonn talks to discuss policy.

The EU, despite having made a concrete emissions reduction proposal, has still not explained how it would monitor and enforce the reductions.

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