Japan on Wednesday said that greenhouse gases emission rate in China and India had reached an alarming proportion and hoped that a legally binding agreement would be arrived at Copenhagen to prevent global warming.
Talking to journalists from South East Asia here on Wednesday, Yoshiko Kijima, senior negotiator for Climate Change, Climate Change Division, International Cooperation Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that an agreement at Copenhagen was also important because the negotiations would not only be about climate change but also on economic competitiveness, including transfer of technology and green technology.
Asked whether Japan was ready to accept forest cover as part of the negotiations on climate change, as proposed by China and India, Ms. Kijima said forests had the potential of acting as carbon sinks.
Commitment
On India’s proposal to have a commitment on reduction of greenhouse gases domestically, Ms. Kijima said that such a commitment could be made at the international forum also.
But she agreed that as the Japanese government was answerable to its people and could not make any commitment on the exact amount of funding for helping the developing nations.
The developing countries too could have reservations about allowing their adaptation and mitigation projects to international reporting and verification.