Japan will push for an easier target for reducing greenhouse gases in the next international pact on global warming than in the previous one, a top bureaucrat said Monday.
The Kyoto global warming pact requires nations to cut emissions below 1990 levels, but critics say that is too difficult because emissions in many countries have risen dramatically since then.
Instead, Japan will push for 2005 to be the base year in an agreement that is meant to take effect when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, said Takao Kitabata, vice minister of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.