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Japan praises environment ministers talks for global warming |
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April 12, 2000
TOKYO, APR 11 (AP) - Environment ministers from top industrialized countries have made progress towards the ratification of a 1997 global warming pact, despite the failure to set a deadline, a Japanese official said Tuesday.
Environmental officials from the G-8 nations met over the weekend in western Japan, issuing a communique promising to ratify the Kyoto protocol "as soon as possible." The agreement did not include a date, but added that "for most countries, this means no later than 2002."
Ryuichiro Yamazaki, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said on Tuesday that the meetings "achieved a certain progress." He said more discussions were expected at the G-8 summit in Okinawa in July.
"There is still a lot of work to be done," he said. The Kyoto protocol calls for developed nations to reduce emissions of greenhouse gas by an average 5.2 percent from 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.
To achieve that goal, the accord calls for the United States to reduce greenhouse gases to 7 percent below what they were in 1990. Europe and Japan would make cuts of 8 percent and 7 percent below 1990 amounts.
The European Union and Japan want a commitment to the protocol's provisions by 2002, while the United States and Canada resisted any specific time frame for ratification, according to participants of the meetings.
The G-8 includes the United States, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Britain, Germany and Russia.
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