Japan environment minister to visit US this week
Date: 04-Sep-01
Country: JAPAN
Tokyo is caught in the middle of two forces - Europe, which wants it to ratify the treaty even without Washington, and its key trade partner and security ally which abandoned the treaty in March on grounds that it was "fatally flawed".
During her six-day visit from Tuesday, Kawaguchi will meet with U.S. officials and try to bring the world's largest polluter of greenhouse gases back the 1997 treaty, an Environment Ministry official said.
"We will continue trying to persuade the United States to return," he said.
Last month, about 180 countries reached a basic agreement that would allow the pact to come into force, but delegates failed to agree on details of the implementation, leaving the specifics to be drawn up at the next round in October.
To come into force, the pact must be ratified by 55 countries, or by countries accounting for 55 percent of 1990 greenhouse gas emissions. Participation by Japan, the world's second-largest economy, is therefore crucial in the absence of the United States.
The United States produces 36.1 percent of the developed world's emissions of man-made carbon dioxide, while the EU accounts for 24.2 percent. Japan is responsible for 8.5 percent.
Under the current deal, industrialised nations agreed to cut carbon dioxide emissions by an average 5.2 percent from 1990 levels by 2012. Greenhouse gases, which come mainly from burning fossil fuels, are thought to cause rising temperatures.
