Beckett Urges Japan to Take Lead on Climate Change

The foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, today urged Japan to join Britain in taking the lead in building a low-carbon global economy, but avoided any mention of numerical targets for greenhouse gas emissions as a divided G8 prepares to discuss climate change at next month's summit in Germany.

In an apparent attempt to cajole the US - the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases - into agreeing to specific reductions ahead of the summit, Ms Beckett praised moves by several US states and cities to set their own emissions targets and calls from US business for mandatory reductions.

"That would have been unthinkable just a year ago," she told Japanese business leaders in Tokyo. "So it is no longer a question of whether the United States will take action at the national level, just when."

The EU recently agreed to reduce emissions in the power sector to close to zero by 2020, but the US opposes setting numerical targets. Washington, which withdrew from the Kyoto protocol, has requested the removal of numerical goals from a draft of the G8 summit statement.

Japan's position on how to tackle climate change after the protocol expires in 2012 remains unclear. Today the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said he was considering new proposals for a global framework for cutting emissions that could include numerical targets. "We're thinking about what form the targets should take," he said. "That includes whether to set numerical targets."

But earlier his foreign minister, Taro Aso, said that including major emitters in a post-Kyoto framework was more important. "Opinions are divided on whether to include numerical targets in an agreement," said Mr Aso. "The US, China and India and other developing countries have overwhelmingly large gas emissions and yet are not part of the Kyoto protocol."

Nevertheless, Ms Beckett said last year's Stern review and recent reports by the UN intergovernmental panel on climate change "have brought home to governments across the world that climate change is a fundamental threat to the global economy, as well as global security and global stability".

She called on Japan to share its unrivaled low-carbon technology with China, one of the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, and dismissed claims that China was ignoring climate change amid rapid economic development.

"Many outside China seem to misunderstand where [it] is on this issue," she said. "The Chinese leadership is worried about the implications for climate change, for their economy and for their social stability."

Japanese concerns that reducing its own emissions would blunt its competitive edge were understandable but misplaced. "You - we - all have much more to lose if China does not make the transition to a low-carbon economy, so we all have an interest in supporting China in meeting its targets on energy efficiency," she said. "An investment in China's energy efficiency is an investment in our own energy security, and for Japan, perhaps an investment in regional security, too."

Japan and the UK, she added, should lead by example. "If we keep up the pace others will follow ... our companies will be the first in the world to adopt to the low-carbon economy. We are the top runners. We can provide the model for others to emulate."