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On March 13, DPJ Next Minister of the Environment Tomiko Okazaki and Secretary General of the DPJ Global Warming Countermeasures Headquarters Tetsuro Fukuyama met with an EU Troika delegation composed of Czech Minister of the Environment Martin Bursik, Swedish Minister of the Environment Andreas Carlgren, and Stavros Dimos, European Commissioner for the Environment.
At the start of the meeting, Okazaki stressed that the problem of climate change was the most important issue for the DPJ in the environmental field, and that the DPJ was making efforts to catch up with the EU, which possessed an advanced system for dealing with this issue.
Bursik pointed out that Japan had a crucial role to play in combating climate change, and revealed that following their visit to Japan, the delegation would be visiting the United States to discuss the issue with the Obama administration. He referred to the fact that the EU had agreed upon a climate and energy policy package in December 2008 and asked what views the DPJ and Japanese industry held on the issue of climate change.
Fukuyama reported to the European side that the DPJ had proposed a Global Warming Countermeasures Basic Law to the Diet last year. He explained that the proposed law contained mid-term targets of reducing emissions, from 1990 levels, by 25% by 2020 and by 60% as soon as possible prior to 2050, and said that if the DPJ had taken power by the time of the negotiations on global warming to take place this December in Copenhagen, they would like to make a positive commitment, while calling for participation by the US, China, India and developing nations.
With regard to Japan industry, he said that it obviously would not be easy to persuade them, but that the party intended to emphasise that it would be an opportunity for added investment, and expressed the opinion that it would be necessary to respond, by paying close attention to changing global conditions, including the birth of the new administration in the United States and the global financial crisis.
During the meeting, the two sides discussed ways of strengthening the partnership between Japan and the EU to move forward with climate change negotiations, establishing mid-term objectives, and ways in which trading of emissions’ rights through cap and trade should take place. Fukuyama expressed the opinion that if possible, the DPJ would like to achieve mid-term objectives domestically, and said that he held some doubts as to whether the government’s six scenarios for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases were legitimate and realistic.
The two sides discussed the creation of an international market in emissions trading, and the policy direction of the new US administration. At the close of the meeting, Okazaki referred to the current situation in Japan, which since the end of the year had been plagued by problems such as bankruptcies, unemployment, and an increase in the number of suicides. She said that the DPJ was considering global warming countermeasures that bore the “Green New Deal” in mind, and that the party saw this as a crucial period for industrial transformation and job creation, and was intending to tackle these issues.
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