An Original Kyoto Protocol Broker Takes a Disappointing Step Backwards
”Japan will not inscribe its [2020] target under the Kyoto Protocol on any conditions or under any circumstances.”
An official with Japan’s Economics Trade and Industry Department, Jun Arima’s statement on Monday was a discouraging start to negotiations in Cancun. Japan now joins Canada in opposing an extension of the global commitment to emissions reductions. However, as a broker of the original treaty, Japan’s extreme position switch represents a major setback to moving forward—and to the developing countries that hope to see Kyoto extended.
The Kyoto Protocol
Ratified in 1997 in talks in Kyoto, Japan, the Kyoto Protocol’s regulatory mechanisms went into effect in 2005. By signing on, developed nations committed to limiting their emissions to a collective five percent below 1990 levels by 2012. If a nation does not make the five percent emissions target, it can participate in one of three, market based mechanisms to offset its emissions: emissions trading, funding clean development mechanisms in developing countries, or funding emissions reduction in another developed nation—a process called joint implementation.
However, the world’s biggest polluters remain unregulated by the treaty: China, Indonesia, and India—because they are developing countries—and the United States—because it is the only industrialized nation that did not sign. This is a point of contention for Japan and other doubting signatories.
Re-Committing to Kyoto
Today, the Kyoto Protocol only covers 27 percent of the world’s emissions, and Japan wants a new treaty—one that includes the big emitters—to go into effect once Kyoto expires in 2012. Unfortunately, the outcome of midterm elections in the U.S. suggests that the United States will be unwilling to make any legally binding commitments (though it has promised it will enact climate legislation), while economic troubles across Europe and Japan make costly energy measures seem unlikely.
While imperfect, Kyoto would encourage developed countries to continue emissions reductions into the future. However, Japan’s statement may only reinforce minimally committed countries’ incentives to opt out of emissions reduction plans; according to Friends of the Earth Japan’s Yuri Onodera, “[the statement] undermines the ongoing talks and is a serious threat to the progress needed here in Cancun.”
If Kyoto falls through, so, too, may effective mitigation efforts in the near future. Grassroots groups will become crucial players in forcing a ‘plan B’: adapting to a changing climate.
You Can Help
Friends of the Earth International has launched a campaign to let the Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan know the importance of reversing Japan’s stance. You can use their form letter, or contact him with your own letter via his website.