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The G8 Mirage: The Summit and Japan's Environmental Policies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Andrew DeWit
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As chair of the G8 this year, Japan will host the group's annual summit. The meeting convenes in the Hokkaido resort town of Toyako from July 7th to the 10th. With Wall Street's worsening financial meltdown spreading through credit categories and far out into the real economies of many G8 members, the summit will focus on economic issues. But the environment remains on the agenda, especially as the world moves towards a post-Kyoto agreement. There isn't much time. The current Kyoto Agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions is effective from 2008 to 2012, and the deadline for a new climate treaty is December 2009, at the Committee of Partners meeting in Poznan, Poland.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 6 , Issue 7 , July 2008 , e3
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2008

References

Notes

[1] Primary energy includes fossil fuels, nuclear and renewable energy sources. Not included among them is, for example, electricity. This is because electricity is generated by these primary energy sources.

[2] The top five countries for 2008 were Sweden, Germany, Iceland, Mexico, and India. The index is viewable on-line (in English).

[3] Indeed, the Worldwatch Institute's Vital Signs 2007-2008 notes that in 2004 European-made autos emitted 161 grams of carbon whereas their Japanese counterparts emitted an average of 170 grams.

[4] Note, for example, that Japan's target for renewables as a percentage of electricity generation is merely 1.63 percent by 2014. Contrast that with Germany, which has exceeded earlier targets and now aims at 45 percent of electricity produced via renewables by 2030. Note also that nearly half of US states have such targets, and California's are to be accelerated to 33 percent by 2020.