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.
Japan this week set a target reduction of 15 per cent of emissions from 2005 levels by 2020 – an amount that equates to eight per cent below 1990 levels, far less than the 20 per cent pledged by the EU.
"I do not believe it is a number that is close to what Japan needs to do and should do," said Yu Qingtai, Chinese climate envoy.
But the Japanese prime minister defended the target in an interview with the Financial Times, saying Japan had already improved its energy efficiency and therefore did not have the low-hanging fruit of emissions reduction that other countries had.
He also said the targets would be hit without buying any carbon credits from abroad, as happens in the EU.
"We believe the target we are setting is ambitious and will allow us to continue to take the leadership [role] in the world community," he said.
Criticism of the Japanese pledge has served to highlight the difference between what developed and developing nations expect each other to do to tackle climate change.
China last month 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.
China and the US ended their latest round of climate talks without coming to an agreement yesterday.
As well as more severe cuts, China wants the US to pledge up to one per cent of its GDP to paying for clean technology in China.
The events of the past week do not bode well for the chances of a successful global deal on climate change in Copenhagen later this year.
UN climate chief Yvo De Boer warned earlier this week that a global agreed target in Copenhagen was unlikely, though he still held hopes of a "robust architecture" being put in place from where further progress could be made.
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