Japan's Official Development Assistance White Paper 2008
Next PageMain Text > Part I Climate Change and Development > Chapter 1 Japan' s Commitment to Climate Change Issues > Section 2. Japan's Leadership
While climate change requires prompt actions, Japan is actively exhibiting its leadership on this issue.
In January 2008, then Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda announced the Cool Earth Promotion Programme, in his special address at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (commonly known as the "Davos Meeting"). The Programme reflected Japan's determination that it would, along with other major emitters, set a quantified national target for GHG emissions reductions. In setting this target, the Programme called for the use of a bottom-up approach to ensure the equity of reduction obligations by compiling, on a sectoral basis, energy efficiency as a scientific and transparent measurement. It also proposed the tallying up of the potential reduction volumes that would be achieved based on the technologies that will be in use in the coming years.
Moreover, the Programme proposed the establishment of the "Cool Earth Partnership," targeting those developing countries that are aiming to achieve both emissions reductions and economic growth simultaneously, and are working to contribute to climate stability. Through the provision of new funding for this Cool Earth Partnership on the scale of US$10 billion, Japan would cooperate actively with developing countries to reduce emissions and conserve energy. Also through this Partnership, Japan aims at extending the hand of assistance to developing countries suffering severe adverse impacts as a result of climate change, in order to strengthen solidarity with developing countries and work towards the reduction of greenhouse gases globally.
In June 2008, a month before the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit, then Prime Minister Fukuda delivered a speech entitled "In Pursuit of 'Japan as a Low-Carbon Society.'" In the speech, he called for the halving of global CO2 emissions by the year 2050 to be a shared goal for the G8 and other major economies. Saying that developed countries should contribute more than developing countries, he presented Japan's long-term goal to reduce its current level of emissions by 60-80% by 2050. He said Japan would step up the development of innovative technologies, taking the lead to create a low-carbon society. As mid-term goals, he said he would persuade other nations to analyze the actual extent of their reduction potentials by applying a sectoral approach and to report on the results at the Fourteenth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP14). He also said he would strive to gain the understanding of nations around the world to establish a common methodology, bearing in mind other countries' assessments of the sectoral approach. As for Japan's quantified national target, he said that Japan intended to announce it at an appropriate time in 2009. He presented Japan's determination to lead the drive toward a low-carbon society by further accelerating its efforts to develop innovative technologies as essential tools for Japan to drastically cut emissions. He then laid out four main concrete measures: (1) developing innovative technologies while disseminating existing advanced technologies, (2) framework-building to move the entire country to lower carbon emissions, (3) active role of local regions, and (4) having each citizen act as a protagonist toward a low-carbon society. In line with the then Prime Minister's previously mentioned speech and proposals made by the Council on the Global Warming Issue in June 2008, the Government of Japan formulated the Action Plan for Achieving a Low-Carbon Society, which illustrated specific measures for each of the aforementioned policy plans.
