Rich countries and emerging economies on Sunday revealed afresh that they still have a long way to go before they can work more collectively in creating a post-2012 global climate regime as the world's 20 major greenhouse gas emitters wrapped up a two-day forum near Tokyo. ( Kyodo )
Yet, despite their differences, they agreed that the international community is in urgent need of properly addressing the threats posed by climate change and accelerating their efforts to bring about an alternative to the Kyoto Protocol that is more inclusive by the end of 2009, delegates said.
The talks, involving the Group of 20 countries that include Brazil, China, India and the Group of Eight nations, comes after some 190 countries decided in December in the Indonesian resort island of Bali to launch two years of U.N. negotiations for a new global framework to rein in carbon dioxide emissions.
''The G-20 meeting turned out to be very successful,'' Ichiro Kamoshita, Japan's environment minister who co-chaired the talks, said at a news conference after the event concluded in Chiba Prefecture, noting that the momentum created in Bali has been reinforced.
''Although some points in the discussions were not heading in the same direction,'' Kamoshita said it was meaningful for countries with conflicts of interest to sit around the same table before a new round of U.N. climate talks begins at the end of this month in Bangkok.
The fourth ministerial meeting of the G-8 Gleneagles Dialogue on Climate Change, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development was also the first ministerial-level event in Japan related to this year's G-8 summit.
Kamoshita and Akira Amari, the Japanese industry minister who was the other co-chair, said it became clear what kind of role Japan needs to play in preparing for the upcoming summit after hearing a wide range of opinions both from developed and developing countries on how to craft a functioning successor to the Kyoto accord after it expires in 2012.
Some countries showed apprehension regarding Japan's proposal of calculating a sectoral CO2 emission reduction potential, based on energy efficiency, according to the delegates.
But the countries agreed to continue discussing in detail about how effectively, verifiably and fairly this approach will contribute to reduction of a considerable amount of energy consumption worldwide, the delegates said.
The Japanese government wants to make this approach one of the main points for discussion at the summit in the Lake Toya hot-spring resort area in Hokkaido from July 7 to 9.
By identifying high-emitting industrial sectors internationally, calculating each sector's CO2 reduction potential and combining them, Japan believes this method, dubbed a ''bottom-up'' sectoral approach, would eventually lead to a quantified national target.
European countries are in favor of a ''top-down'' approach of allotting individual countries reduction obligations after a global goal is set, and some developing countries are concerned that Japan's sectoral approach could drag on economic growth.
''We have always been in favor of a national sectoral approach'' but not an international one, Marthinus Van Schalkwyk, South African environment minister, told reporters after the meeting.
He said that even some ''developed countries are seeing an international sectoral approach as a way to protect themselves against competitiveness from emerging economies.''
South Africa and some other developing countries taking part in the discussions also voiced strong resistance at being labeled ''major emitters,'' noting that the amounts of their per capita emissions are much smaller than those of wealthy nations.
But the ministers said differences in views about how to tackle global warming had been widely expected given the nature of the meeting.
It was designed from the beginning to stimulate frank discussions between industrialized and fast-growing countries, not tasked with striking a deal among them, they said.
The findings of the meeting will feed into discussions at the upcoming G-8 summit. The meeting was the last of its kind in a process initiated by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2005.
A senior Japanese official indicated that Japan plans to propose during the summit of leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States that a similar dialogue process involving the 20 countries continue.
''We felt that the G-20 should play some kind of role,'' the official said. ''We will officially file the proposal at a relevant stage.''
He also said Japan plans to host a workshop in May of scientists from Japan and abroad to exchange views on the feasibility of the Tokyo-proposed sectoral approach.