On July 8, DPJ Global Warming Countermeasures Headquarters Chair, Katsuya Okada made the following statement:

On July 8, leaders meeting at the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit released a document on the Environment and Climate Change, one of the summit's most pressing issues.

Long-term goals were one of the key points of discussion, and we recognise that it is a step forward that a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 was described to "share the vision" rather than simply a goal to "consider seriously", which was the wording at the 2007 Heiligendamm Summit. However, we regret that developed countries gave consideration to the position of the US and as a result were unable to fulfil their responsibility to reach a definite agreement on long-term emissions reduction goals at the summit.

On the subject of mid-term goals, although the statement referred to national emissions reduction objectives by individual developed countries, there were no numerical commitments, merely a pledge to implement "ambitious" goals. Even though Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has in the Diet referred on numerous occasions to the setting of mid-term goals, Japan, as summit host, did not put its own mid-term goals forward. As Japan failed to clarify its own position, we have grave doubts over whether the Prime Minister fulfilled his role as Summit Chair.

Last month, when the government announced the "Fukuda Vision", the DPJ pointed out that "we are completely unable to see what stance the Prime Minister will take at the G8 Summit and what results he is trying to achieve". Although small degree of progress was achieved in the end through negotiations with other countries, we believe Japan failed to show overall leadership.

During the upcoming extraordinary Diet session, the DPJ intends to submit once again the Global Warming Countermeasures Basic Bill, which was submitted to the previous ordinary Diet session. In addition to passing the bill into law, we will also strongly urge the government to implement the 13 basic policies listed in the bill. Finally, even though the G8 Summit has now passed, the DPJ will continue to carefully monitor the government's measures to combat global warming.