Japan at the forefront of UN climate efforts

After the leaders of some of the world’s major polluting countries spoke at the UN climate summit today, it was Japan that rose above the crowd. The recently elected Japanese Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, promises major emission reductions while the USA and China are yet to bring any concrete promises on climate commitments to the table.

Despite the lack of hard numbers or major news from the two key actors Hu Jintao and Barack Obama, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt is still pleased with the day’s meeting.
“You should not underestimate the political energy brought by the fact that both Chinas and the USA’s presidents are actually present. This is historical and has a great symbolic value. Their mere presence is not however enough for us to be able to bring about a new global climate agreement in Copenhagen. They will need to be more concrete for the international climate process to avoid coming to a standstill”, says Fredrik Reinfeldt.

Someone who did speak of concrete measures at today’s climate summit was the newly elected Prime Minister of Japan, Yukio Hatoyama. He based his election campaign on promises of vigorous efforts to combat climate change and today he promised that Japan's emission levels will be reduced by 25 per cent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels. His statement is welcomed by Fredrik Reinfeldt.
“This is a sign of genuine leadership. He has barely taken up his post, but he is already promising reductions in line with European promises.”

“It should be possible to do more”

In his opening speech, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on world leaders to make more efforts so as not to risk losing control of the climate. Chinese President Hu Jintao emphasised certain positive changes in the Chinese climate targets and stated in his address that China will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by what he referred to as “a substantial amount”. Fredrik Reinfeldt however, believes that it should be possible to do more.

“China is doing things that are both very right and very wrong at the same time. They are investing a lot into renewable energy and energy efficiency, but they are also constantly starting up new coal-fired power stations. In the end a lot more of the former is required and a lot less, preferably nothing at all, of the latter.”

“We are now pushing to draw attention to the trend that we have seen recently; that all over the world politicians are winning elections by wanting to take climate efforts further.  This is something that we have seen in Japan and in Australia and now large parts of the developed world are closing in on the responsibility they need to take to face the global climate threat. This will, in the end, put great pressure on the USA, and perhaps above all on China and other rapidly growing developing countries, to formulate clear objectives and commit themselves to making the two degree target a credible one”, says Fredrik Reinfeldt.