Japan’s businesses worried about proposed CO2 reduction goals

| Sourced From |

TOKYO, Oct. 8 (UPI) — Japanese business leaders are skeptical about an ambitious government proposal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Kyodo News reported Thursday that the Japanese business community instead is stressing the need to build a nationwide consensus on how to achieve the CO2 reduction targets.

A meeting between the Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry emphasized the differing approaches about how to achieve Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s pledge to cut national carbon emissions 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 even as both sides agreed that the government should provide assistance to strengthen Japanese corporate competitiveness in the face of the global recession, which has severely crippled Japanese exports.

Nippon Keidanren Vice Chairman Sadayuki Sakakibara stated that “the business community is concerned” about the governmental emissions pledge target and that attaining the goal with existing technologies would be “very difficult.” In turn Industry Minister Masayuki Naoshima told reporters after the meeting that “I asked them not to oppose (the goals) from the beginning and join in the discussions.”

Tagged as: carbon reduction goals, CO2, japan carbon

Posted on October 13, 2009 · in Asia