The Environment Ministry neglected to reveal the nation's failure to meet its
carbon dioxide (CO2) emission reduction target when it reported emission data
for fiscal 2000 at a ministerial meeting in mid-July, ministry officials said
Monday.
'When we reported the figures, nowhere did we have the action plan in mind,' a
ministry official said, referring to the government's target of reducing CO2
emissions in fiscal 2000 to fiscal 1990 levels. Officials of nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) said the ministry's failure is a poor omen for Japan's
pledge to reduce its emission levels 6% below 1990 levels under the Kyoto
Protocol.
The government adopted the action plan in October 1990 at a meeting of ministers
who have jurisdiction over global warming issues.
The plan was heralded in some quarters as the world's first bold initiative
aimed at slashing emissions of the substance linked with global warming.
But others were skeptical from the beginning as the plan was not legally binding
and lacked a realistic standard for revising the target.
The figures the ministry reported to the July 19 ministerial meeting showed CO2
emissions for fiscal 2000 had grown 10.5% from the fiscal 1990 level, or 7.9%
above the fiscal 1990 level per capita.
In March, the government set a new outline to reduce global warming gases,
including CO2, by 6% from 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.
The outline, however, could meet the same consequence as the action plan, warned
Mie Asaoka, who heads the Kiko Network, an NGO working to tackle climate change
issues.
'The outline is not equipped with a numerical benchmark to examine the progress
of emission reduction efforts' to see if the target is achievable when reviewed
in 2004 and 2007, Asaoka said.