PRESS CONFERENCE BY JAPAN ON KYOTO PROTOCOL

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY JAPAN ON KYOTO PROTOCOL

As the host country of the third Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which adopted the historic Kyoto Protocol last December, Japan was taking the lead among developed countries in implementing the Protocol, its Parliamentary Vice-Minister for the Environment, Koichi Yamamoto, said at a Headquarters press conference to announce Japan's signing of the Protocol later that day.

The Kyoto Protocol was a historic document, Mr. Yamamoto said. For the first time, it set legally binding numerical targets aiming at limitations and reductions of greenhouse gases emissions for the developed (Annex I) countries. But signing the Protocol was only a first step. Implementing it entailed examining the systems and definitions introduced in the Protocol. That work was already going on, and during the meetings to be held in June and November, Japan would take the lead in negotiations.

To arrest global warming, he said, every country and every person had to do the utmost to reduce emissions. Japan had introduced a bill to reduce those emissions, and it had been submitted to Parliament. Japan had also revised its law on rational use of energy. Once they were passed in Parliament, they would establish the groundwork for achieving the goals for emission reduction.

When asked what kind of energy Japan would introduce to reduce emissions since it had not done much research in solar energy, the Director General of Japan's Bureau of the Environment and Industrial Siting, Toru Namiki, said that by 2010, the target year for the Kyoto Protocol, a combination of nuclear, solar, wind and thermal energy would be used. But most of Japan's energy would be in the nuclear form. By 2010, 70 million kilowatts would have to be generated by nuclear energy, which would require 20 new nuclear power plants. However, Japan also planned to increase use of new energy forms until they supplied 3 per cent of Japan's total energy needs. Subsidy of research into new forms of energy had already begun, such as research on photovoltaic cells used in solar energy.

How would the waste from 20 nuclear plants be handled? a correspondent asked. And what was the Japanese people's reaction to nuclear plants after the Chernobyl accident?

Japan had long-term plans for nuclear waste disposal, Mr. Namiki said. Securing the safety of those plants was very important and provisions were being considered. Winning the understanding of the people who would live near the plants was also very important. But it was a consensus of those in government that Japan had to rely on nuclear energy in order to arrest environmental problems.

Immediately after the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol, he said, Japan had established the Global Warming Prevention Headquarters, chaired by Prime Minister Hashimoto. Its purpose was to pursue policies that were well balanced on both environment and energy needs. It was on the basis of those guidelines that various ministries and government departments were pursuing the goals.

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