Incoming Japanese PM raises emissions targets to 25 per cent

Japan's prime minister-elect Yukio Hatoyama appears to have heeded international calls and has revised his country's greenhouse gas emission targets upwards to a 25 per cent cut from 1990 levels by 2020.

According to reports from Reuters, while the targets are more aggressive, Hatoyama emphasised that they were dependent on other major nations agreeing similarly stringent aims.

"We can't stop climate change just with our country setting an emissions target," said Hatoyama. "We will also aim to create a fair and effective international framework by all major countries in the world."

Hatoyama, who will officially take up his new role on 16 September, indicated that the consensus on tougher targets would be included as part of the UN climate change talks in Copenhagen in December.

Japan's main spokesperson for climate change, Katsuya Okada, was asked in an interview with Reuters how the country would alter its 25 per cent targets if countries such as India and China were not on board with similar cuts.

"We are trying to reach an agreement, so we are not discussing what to do if there is none," Okada said.

According to a government panel report report released in August, Japan's previous policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15 per cent by 2020 could cost $515bn (£256bn) over the next decade.

The new higher targets could raise those costs, but the incoming Democratic government has not put a figure on the costs yet.

The largest outlay for the previous targets was estimated to be about $126bn needed to promote electric and other eco-friendly cars, according to the report from a sub-committee of the Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy.

A number of global warming experts – including China's top climate envoy – have criticised Japan for not going far enough in its recently unveiled targets to reduce emissions.

In May, China demanded that developed nations cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 – twice the EU level and far higher than the 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020 proposed in the US bill being considered by Congress.