The government will submit three bills to the ordinary Diet session that convenes Monday to realize Japan's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on curbing global warming, government sources said Saturday.
It is also expected to map out new guidelines at a special committee in early February on how to achieve a 6 percent reduction in greenhouse gases between 2008 and 2012 from 1990 levels, mandated for the ratification, they said.
Under the bills, the government will act in three stages from this year to 2012, by which time the 6 percent cut in carbon dioxide and some other greenhouse gases should be achieved.
When each of the first two stages ends, in 2004 and 2007, the government will evaluate the progress of greenhouse gas reduction and, if necessary, will add new measures to attain the target, the sources said.
The bills will also require the government to raise public awareness of the need to tackle global warming themselves, they said.
In addition, the new guideline will include individual measures and reduction targets for each of six types of greenhouse gases and will include charts to illustrate how those targets will be achieved, they said.
Moreover, it will "recommend" that businesses voluntarily disclose the volume of greenhouse gases they emit, they said.
Critics are likely to argue that the bills will be ineffective as they include no proposals to introduce environmental taxes and do not require businesses to measure or disclose the volume of greenhouse gases they produce.