A compromise agreement at the Group of Eight summit to seriously consider halving global greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050 incorporates Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's proposal for halving the emissions by that year without setting a baseline year. Japan, the host of next year's G8 summit, must do its utmost to fulfill its obligations under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol if it wants to play a leading role in fighting global warming.
Under the protocol Japan must reduce emissions in the 2008-2012 period by 6 percent from 1990 levels. But fiscal 2005 emissions were about 8 percent more than the base levels. The government's white paper on the environment and a recycle-based society has called on the household sector to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions by switching to fluorescent bulbs and energy-saving appliances. Wider use of environment-friendly vehicles will also help reduce emissions.
Under new rules, passenger cars in Japan must attain a fuel efficiency of 16.8 km per liter by fiscal 2015, a 23.5 percent improvement from the fiscal 2004 record. EU proposes that carbon-dioxide emissions from new cars and vans be reduced by about 25 percent by 2012. The U.S. Supreme Court has encouraged the Environmental Protection Agency to control carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases by ruling that these gases are "pollutants" under the Clean Air Act.