Gov`t to set up 2 teams to implement Japan`s climate policy

TOKYO, Oct. 7 Kyodo -
The government will set up two task forces to implement Japan's new climate
change policy unveiled by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama that involves a 25
percent greenhouse gas emissions cut by 2020 from 1990 levels and aid for poor
countries, the top government spokesman said Wednesday.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said after a Cabinet committee meeting
on curbing global warming that one of the working teams will reexamine
necessary financial costs when the country achieves its emissions reduction
goal.
The other team will study specifics of the so-called ''Hatoyama Initiative,''
which refers to Japan's financial and technical support for developing
countries in combating climate change, Hirano said.
The government will steer discussions by the panels in time for key U.N.
climate talks in Copenhagen in December, which are aimed at crafting a new
international framework on slashing heat-trapping gases to grapple with climate
change, he said.
Hatoyama said it is important to provide ''correct data'' on financial costs to
Japanese people as the country will try to accomplish the ambitious reduction
target.
''Some people say it will be costly to achieve the 25 percent cut goal, but I
think we should reexamine financial burdens to check whether their assumption
is correct,'' the premier said. ''I want businesspeople to rather think this
challenge is an opportunity for them.''
Hatoyama said Japan should work out its detailed climate policy before the
Copenhagen talks, which will open Dec. 7. The premier also said he instructed
the two task forces to compile an interim report by the end of October.
Under Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Environment Minister Sakihito Ozawa will
serve as secretariat heads for both the groups. All the members will be
politicians, namely senior vice ministers and parliamentary secretaries,
according to Hirano and Ozawa.
Separately, the government will launch an expert panel in a bid to promote
awareness among Japanese people on the need to carry out steps to fight global
warming, Hirano said.
He added that the government will also swiftly set up a study group on how to
design Japan's emissions trading mechanism. The country only has an
experimental carbon credit trading system that was launched last October on a
voluntary basis.
The previous government led by the Liberal Democratic Party compiled an
estimate saying the 25 percent reduction target would cost each Japanese
household about 360,000 yen a year.
Ozawa has said he believes the existing estimate ''puts too much emphasis on
financial burdens.''
==Kyodo