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3 july 2001
japanese premier ignores world's outcry
and risks global environment
On 30 June at Camp David, Japan's Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi promised US
President George W. Bush that at the moment
Japan would not proceed the Kyoto climate
treaty without the US and offered to set up a
US-Japan bilateral talk to propose a
compromise to the world. Subsequently his
cabinet members revealed that Japan was going
to propose the revision of the treaty text
including further weakening the targets and
delaying the action.
As the Premier repeats Japan's commitment
to the treaty and claims that without the US
the environmental effectiveness of the treaty
would diminish, he himself contradicts with
his words. Since March the US administration
and President Bush himself have been very
clear that the US will not participate any
agreement that has mandatory emission cuts
and doesn't impose commitments on developing
countries. Weakening the targets and delaying
action won't help global environment nor
bringing back the world's largest greenhouse
gas emitter back into the treaty table. Nor
these changes would help convince developing
countries to join the accord in the
future.
As his national reform plan announced last
month also demonstrates the same low priority
given to the environment, Prime Minister
Koizumi's failure to stand up against
President Bush's narrow view of economic
interests demonstrates his lack of
understanding the magnitude of this global
environmental crisis, said Friends of the
Earth Japan campaigner Yuri Onodera.
The world citizens including majority
Japanese and Americans want to see Japan and
other industrial countries take action to cut
greenhouse gas emissions immediately. By
offering President Bush and his oil industry
friends more concessions Prime Minister risks
global environment and will have to face
serious criticism from the world and within
the country, Onodera said.
The Kyoto climate treaty was adapted at
the UN conference held at the same name of an
ancient city in Japan in 1997 and stipulates
legally binding emissions cuts by industrial
nations. In March the US administration
announced to reject the treaty, but European
nations and Russia expressed the intention to
proceed ratification and press the US to come
back later rather than abandoning the treaty
with a decade long negotiation.
Friends of the Earth International,
Greenpeace, World Wide Fund for Nature, Kiko
Network and other environmental organizations
are calling to send messages to Prime
Minister Koizumi for Japan to ratify the
treaty regardless of the United States. You
can send a message from:
http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/press_for_change/fax_japan_pm/
Contact:
Yuri Onodera, Friends of the Earth Japan
Email Energy@foejapan.org
Tel +81-3-3951-1081
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