Introduction: Background and tasks of the Joint Conference

At the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, there was a shared recognition that global warming is a serious issue directly linked to the lives of present and future generations of humankind, and a resolution undertaken by humankind toward solving this issue was adopted as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This treaty went into effect in 1994 and has been ratified by 169 countries to date. To make the treaty more effective in practical terms and to expedite global initiatives, the Third Conference of the Parties (COP3) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will be held in Kyoto, Japan, in December of this year. Participating countries are currently in the final stages of negotiations.

Japan has actively worked to conserve energy since the oil crises, and as a result of efforts by both the public and private sectors, it has attained the world's highest rate of efficiency in terms of energy use. Primary energy consumption per capita in Japan is low in comparison with other industrialized nations; it is about one-third that of the United States and one-half that of Germany (according to the International Energy Agency and the World Bank in 1994). Even after Japan instituted global-warming countermeasures in 1990, however, its carbon dioxide emissions markedly increased with a rise in energy consumption mainly in the transport and commercial/residential sectors. This makes it necessary to enhance awareness of the seriousness of global warming and to take further steps to reduce CO2 emissions.

Japan, as the host of COP3 and as a nation accounting for about 5 percent of the world's CO2 emissions, needs to present ideas that will appeal to the world and take its own initiatives toward combatting global warming. This demands that all the nation's people share an awareness of the issues and a strong determination to prevent global warming. On the domestic front, it is essential to obtain the understanding and cooperation of the public, industry, and other actors in carrying out comprehensive, in-depth global-warming countermeasures centered on fundamental steps to control energy demand, including reevaluation of lifestyles.

Addressing the global-warming issue demands measures across a broad range of policy areas and efforts by the entire nation. This Joint Conference, held at the request of the Prime Minister, brought together representatives from nine advisory councils involved in basic domestic policy in order to address global warming with the aim of setting the basic course for addressing this issue in Japan. Since the first meeting on 27 August, the Joint Conference has identified a broad range of measures with the cooperation of the authorities concerned. At the same time, it has heard opinions at public hearings in Tokyo and Osaka. Its aim has been to come up with a domestic policy that will support the international efforts at COP3, and to seek a fundamentalsolution to global warming over the long term. This report is a compilation of the results of its deliberations, which while short were focused and intense.