Japanese, Chinese leaders welcome climate change protocol

December 11, 1997
Web posted at: 9:43 a.m. EST (1443 GMT)

TOKYO (AP) -- Asian political leaders welcomed Thursday's international agreement to limit emissions of the gases thought to cause global warming, but leaders of the industries that will have to clean up were skeptical.

Japan's Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto pledged that his government will do all it can to cut greenhouse gases to a 6 percent less than 1990 levels, as set out in the U.N. climate change conference agreement in Kyoto.

"Six percent is a very heavy figure for Japan ... but now that we have accepted it as a target, we will do our utmost to realize it," Hashimoto told a news conference. "I'm relieved to have somehow fulfilled our responsibilities as the host country."

Japan had proposed a non-legally binding 2.5 percent cut by the 2008-2012 deadline.

Hashimoto said the government will drastically revise the energy-saving law and set energy consumption standards of the highest level.

Japanese industry leaders, however, said they were skeptical the protocol, adopted by the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change earlier in the day, could be met even if it is approved by parliament.

Tokio Kano, vice president of Tokyo Electric Power Co., said the new target puts Japan at a disadvantage, Kyodo News agency reported, since Japan lacks know-how in the trading of gas emissions rights.

"Japan's competitiveness in international markets might decrease and the yen might weaken," Kyodo quoted him as saying.

Kyodo quoted Kazumoto Yamamoto, president of Asahi Chemical Industry Co., as saying "It will be extremely difficult to achieve the target."

China welcomed the agreement.

Tang Guoqiang, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, lauded the adoption of the protocol, but also said that China was opposed to any new demands on developing countries.

"We support the adoption of a protocol that is in line with the UN convention on climate change," Tang said at a regular briefing for reporters in Beijing.

He added, however, that China's rejection of further limits on developing countries "does not mean that we support the unlimited emission of greenhouses gases."

Unlike in Japan, where ratification is considered likely but far from certain, ratification by China's legislature, the National People's Congress, rubber-stamps major decisions taken by the ruling Communist Party, making ratification virtually certain.

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