Japanese Environment Minister Ichiro Kamoshita delivered a keynote speech on climate change Sunday at the Group of Eight (G8) environment ministers meeting.
In his speech, Kamoshita voiced his hope that the G8 leaders will reach an agreement on the long-term goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at the G8 summit scheduled for July in Japan's Hokkaido.
In order to achieve the goal, an international network should be set up to facilitate the shift to low-carbon societies, said Kamoshita, adding that developed countries are supposed to adopt stronger measures and strive for reduction goals higher than 50 percent to demonstrate their leadership.
The Japanese environment minister also stressed the cooperation between developed and developing countries on environmental issues.
"The key to promoting mitigation actions in developing countries is the approach that produces co-benefits in the area of development," he said.
He added that Japan is building up a collection of best practices, technology maps and tools to identify co-benefits projects in areas of pollution abatement, forest conservation, and the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle).
"We would like to assist developing countries to use these tools and knowledge by sharing our experience," said Kamoshita.
The G8 environment ministers meeting opened Saturday in the run-up to the G8 summit scheduled for July 7-9 at the Lake Toya resort in the Japanese northern main island of Hokkaido.
Three major issues of biodiversity, climate change and 3Rs are on the agenda of the three-day conference.
Environment chiefs and relevant officials from the European Commission, 10 emerging economies, including China, India and Brazil, and eight international organizations have also been invited to be present at the gathering.
The Group of Eight is composed of the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada, and Russia, the eight leading industrial nations, whose heads of government hold regular meetings known as the G8 summit.
Source: Xinhua
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