Japan may host U.N. environment summit in 2002

[John Visher <visherjc@crisscross.com>]

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/news9-99/news.html#story1

(September 1)

          Japan may host U.N. environment summit in 2002

          By HISANE MASAKI
          Staff writer

          The Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition government is
informally considering hosting a landmark United Nations-sponsored
summit on
          the global environment in 2002 to advance an international
crusade on environmental issues, informed sources said Wednesday.

          The sources said the coalition government -- which includes
the Liberal Party and is expected to be joined by New Komeito as early
as
          the end of the month -- will decide by next spring, at the
latest, whether to declare Japan's candidacy to host the U.N.
environmental
          summit.

          The 2002 U.N. summit will be held to review progress made
during the decade since the 1992 U.N. Conference on Environment and
          Development, better known as the Earth Summit, in Rio de
Janeiro and also to consider additional measures to protect the global
          environment.

          Details of the 2002 conference, including the specific dates
and venue, are expected to be determined at the U.N. General Assembly
          session in autumn 2000.

          The sources said that the U.N. has informally conveyed to
Tokyo a desire to see Japan declare its candidacy to host the summit.

          The U.N. has sponsored landmark environmental conferences
every 10 years -- in Stockholm in 1972, Nairobi in 1982 and then in Rio
          de Janeiro in 1992. There is a growing consensus among U.N.
member nations that the next landmark environmental conference should
          be held in Asia, the sources said.

          According to the sources, some within the ruling coalition
propose holding the summit in China, the world's most populous country
with
          more than 1.2 billion people and one of the five permanent
members on the powerful U.N. Security Council. But Beijing seems
reluctant
          to host the summit, the sources said.

          In fact, former Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, who still has
great influence on the LDP-led coalition's environmental policy,
broached
          the idea with Chinese President Jiang Zemin when they met in
Tokyo last November during Jiang's first visit as a state guest. But the

          Chinese leader did not show any interest, the sources said.

          Even if Beijing shows a willingness to host the 2002 U.N.
environmental summit, they said, global environmentalist groups may
oppose the
          idea because they are harshly critical of what they view as
the Chinese government's lax domestic environmental-protection policy.

          If it becomes clearer that China has no intention of declaring
its candidacy as host of the summit, the ruling coalition is expected to
start
          full-scale consultations within the domestic ministries and
agencies involved in environmental issues about the possibility of
hosting the
          event.

          If Japan formally declares its candidacy, there appears to be
a strong possibility that the country will be chosen as the host, the
sources
          said.

          At the end of 1997, Japan hosted the third Conference of
Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The
          convention was adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit.

          At COP3, as the Kyoto conference is commonly called, more than
150 signatory countries to the U.N. convention adopted the landmark
          "Kyoto protocol" that sets legally binding requirements for
industrialized countries to slash the total volume of their greenhouse
gas
          emissions by 5.2 percent between 2008 and 2012 from 1990
levels.

          The protocol specifically obliges Japan, the United States and
the 15-nation European Union to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and five

          other greenhouse gases widely blamed for global warming, by 6
percent, 7 percent and 8 percent, respectively.

          The Kyoto protocol also contains an agreement to introduce
three schemes -- emissions trading, the clean development mechanism and
          the joint implementation -- to help industrialized countries
achieve their greenhouse gas-reduction targets. But details of these
schemes
          were not worked out at COP3.

          At the fourth Conference of Parties to the U.N. Framework
Convention on Climate Change, or COP4, in Buenos Aires last November,
          the convention signatory countries agreed to seek an agreement
on the details of the three schemes at COP6.

          COP6 is expected to be held in The Hague either in the autumn
of 2000 or in the spring of 2001. Although COP5 will be held in Bonn
          later this year, no breakthrough seems likely in the stalled
negotiations on the three schemes.

          The Kyoto protocol has yet to take effect. Largely because of
the lack of an agreement on the three schemes, most industrialized
          countries have not yet ratified the protocol.

          According to the sources, there is a view within the LDP-led
coalition that if the 2002 U.N. environmental summit is held in Japan,
the
          signatory countries to the U.N. Framework Convention on
Climate Change should seek to make the Kyoto protocol effective before
then
          and hold a ceremony during the summit to mark the
accomplishment.