Climate Delegates In Warsaw Horrified By Japan's Abandonment Of Carbon Targets
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Japan's decision came at the end of the first week of negotiations in Warsaw, during which civil servants have been preparing for the arrival of government ministers by shaping the first drafts of agreements to provide new funding to developing countries to help them to adapt to climate change. They have also been working towards a global agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions beyond 2020. Some of the delegates here were alarmed by Japan's announcement. China's negotiator in Warsaw, Su Wei, said of the revised target: "I have no way of describing my dismay."
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The government tried to dress up the announcement as a reduction in emissions by saying the new target for 2020 was 3.8 percent below the 2005 level. Campaigners pointed out that the old target was 25 percent below 1990 levels, so on that baseline the new target represented a 3.1 percent increase by 2020.
Following Canada's repudiation of the Kyoto agreement two years ago and Australia's decision earlier this week to abandon its renewable energy targets and other efforts to cut fossil fuel consumption, there was dismay in Warsaw at Japan's news. Wael Hmaidan, of Climate Action Network International, said: "It is unbelievable that this is happening. After the suffering in the Philippines the likes of Australia and Japan are trampling on the corpses of the dead."
Kimiko Hirata, a Japanese representative of CAN, said "Japan is betraying these talks; this is very very disappointing, totally unhelpful, not to say destructive." She was particularly alarmed that the decision had been announced in the middle of the climate talks after more than two years of deliberations. "The government process has been totally without transparency," she said. "Fifty plants were shut down, but emissions only rose by 7.5 percent overall."
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http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2013/11/japan-emissions-walkback