climate agreement and pledge to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases,
including carbon dioxide, by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020,
government officials said.
The government submitted a document outlining the
goal and measures to realize it to the secretariat office of the
accord, they said.
Prime Minister
Environment Minister Sakihito Ozawa and other ministers concerned met
on the day at a ministerial committee on the matter, where they agreed
to the policy.
The government, however, added to the document a
condition that major countries of the world participate in the treaty
with aggressive reduction targets.
The Copenhagen Accord, which was tentatively agreed to last month at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the
Delegates agreed to “take note of” the accord at the
final plenary session of the conference but no consensus was reached to
officially approve it.
Countries that agree to participate in the accord,
which is not legally binding, are asked to submit reduction goals and
specific measures to the secretariat.
With the decision, the Japanese government plans to
submit a bill on a basic law on measures to fight global warming, which
will stipulate the 25 percent reduction target and concrete measures to
realize the goal.
—
(c) 2010, The Yomiuri Shimbun.
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