Earth Summit: Japan's submission to the U.S. questioned -- Akahata editorial, August 26The World Summit on Sustainable Development opened on August 26 and will continue till September 4 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Delegates of national governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from 180 countries will examine what has been achieved during the 10 years since the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and discuss ways to realize sustainable societies.
First step to curb global warming
During the last decade, the world has taken an important first step toward an international arrangement to protect the world environment. One such example is the adoption of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol obliging developed countries to set goals of reduction of their emission of greenhouse gases.
Aimed at bringing the treaty into effect at the Johannesburg summit, national governments worked to ratify it.
But the U.S. Bush administration turned its back on this effort. Abandoning its serious responsibility as the world's second largest carbon dioxide emitter, the United States seceded from the Kyoto Protocol.
What is more, U.S. President George W. Bush has said he will not attend the summit. It is natural that the U.S. choice came under fire from governments in the world, and even from people in the United States. Lester Brown, World Watch Institute director, commented that it was a very wrong choice showing that the present U.S. administration is not keeping pace with the rest of the world.
At issue is the attitude of the Japanese government, the chair of the Kyoto Conference.
Pressured by public opinion in Japan and abroad, the Japanese government ratified the Kyoto Protocol. The government, however, has been reluctant to call on the United States to sit at the table and even extols the U.S. proposal which leads to a substantial increase in greenhouse gases.
The Japanese government is to blame for postponing the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, out of its subservience to U.S. policy.
To accelerate global action, it is extremely important to lead the U.S. government to abide by the Kyoto Protocol, which regulates by force of international opinion and movement. The Japanese government should pressure Russia to ratify it without delay, which is essential to bring the Protocol into force. This is exactly what the Japanese government must do to fulfill its responsibility to bring it into effect in 2002.
A discussion is now going on as to whether or not to set a deadline or numerical targets to phase out dependency on fossil fuels, such as oil, and go for development and supply of renewable energy resources.
On this issue, the Japanese government together with the United States are also in opposition to the attempt to shift towards renewable energy. Japan should not repeat its folly of submission to the United States and being isolated from the world.
The action to protect the global environment from destruction is deeply connected with serious poverty spreading in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. Countries of the South are demanding that the Earth Summit work out ways to solve the problems of poverty.
Elimination of poverty is one of the biggest challenges of the present-day world and is an essential condition toward sustainable development especially in developing countries.
Stick to principles
One of the focal points of the summit meeting is a responsibility of capitalist nations who have achieved their economic prosperity while depriving the economic South of resources. To play an active role to preserve global environment, Japan should seriously consider how to assist developing countries.
A top leader of an African country argues that advanced industrial countries should reduce this amount of gas emission, a cause of global warming. This is what the Koizumi administration should listen to because it has no intention to end large development projects, typical of wasteful and environment-devastating works. (end)