NEW YORK -- Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto on June 23 urged industrialized countries to take the initiative in combating climate change problems by creating green technologies and disseminating them to developing nations.
He made the appeal in a speech to the special United Nations General Assembly session on the environment, which opened the same day with the participation of leaders and envoys from about 170 nations. The text of the speech was pre-released to the media. In the speech, however, Hashimoto did not go much beyond what was agreed to on June 22 by the Group of Seven industrialized nations plus Russia at the Denver summit.
Hashimoto called for cooperation so that a conference on climate change to be held in December in Kyoto will end successfully. "At the Denver summit, the eight countries agreed that they intend to commit to meaningful, realistic and equitable targets that will result in reductions of greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2010," he said. "Let us also demonstrate, as the general will of the United Nations, our firm commitment to the success of the Kyoto conference."