EDITORIAL: Climate crisis

This summer continues to present compelling evidence of global climate change.

China and Pakistan have suffered repeated damage from heavy rainfall, flooding and mudflows. Heat waves are striking Eastern Europe and Russia, with severe drought in Russia causing extensive forest fires. Japan is also staggering under boiling temperatures, while South America has descended into a bitterly cold winter.

Global warming is causing a rash of such freakish weather. We need a sense of critical urgency about what our climate may turn into in another 30 to 50 years, which might inspire serious attempts to counter global warming.

In contrast, international negotiations surrounding global warming are at a standstill.

Last month, in the face of Republican opposition, Democrats in the U.S. Senate abandoned deliberation of a bill for greenhouse gas emission trading. The proposed legislation called for 17 percent cuts in emissions compared to 2005 levels by 2020, and an 80 percent cut by 2050. Hopes were high that such a law would bolster international talks to combat climate change.

The 15th Conference of Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP15) convened last December in Copenhagen. Despite drawing leaders from around the world, the quest to determine a framework for international controls on greenhouse gases after 2013 fell flat. Considerable time will be required to hammer out the next outline for such cuts.

Japan must not just go along with the general tendency toward inaction. It is lagging domestically and should accelerate its efforts.

Tokyo previously announced to the world the goal of slashing the nation's greenhouse gases by 25 percent from the 1990 level by 2020, and by 80 percent by 2050. However, no system is in place to shoulder the burdens of such reductions.

Worldwide, domestic emissions trading, environmental taxes and measures to dramatically expand the use of alternative energy comprise the three main prongs of the effort to stop climate change. In Japan, while a scheme to buy electricity from alternative energy sources is taking shape, no progress has been made on the other two fronts.

The government should quickly pass a basic law to combat global warming. It is true that the two houses of the Diet are at loggerheads because of the power split between government and opposition parties. Nevertheless, it should be easy for the ruling Democratic Party of Japan to enlist cooperation from opposition forces on climate change, which is surely an issue that politicians can unite around.

As for the stated 25 percent cuts, we advocate realistic discussions of the percentage reduction achievable through domestic cuts alone. On emissions trading, it will be essential to advance discussions with the business community, while creating a framework which gives consideration to industries with heavy energy consumption and other vulnerable sectors.

Global warming talks broke down after the United States withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol to the U.N. framework convention in 2001. What is needed now is a commitment to move ahead with this work regardless of the obstacles.

Washington, the European Union, China and other major players formulate independent policies and action plans and then press those viewpoints in international negotiations. Japan cannot afford to be passive. Drafting domestic countermeasures is an urgent necessity and will arm Japanese negotiators with concrete proposals for the next international emissions reduction framework.

The belief that global warming countermeasures are a heavy burden is deep-rooted within economic circles and individual citizens alike.

We should not forget, however, that Japan allocates massive spending for fossil fuel imports. Global warming measures must be used as a lever to help implement strategies that lead to improved energy self-sufficiency, jobs and economic growth.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 18