KOBE — Environment ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations and 10 other countries, including China and India, will gather Saturday in Kobe for a three-day summit on climate change.
Building consensus between developed and developing nations for a post-Kyoto Protocol Treaty on the environment is the priority for Japan at this year's G8 summit at Lake Toya, Hokkaido, in early July.
But sharp differences exist between developed and developing nations and among the G8 countries themselves over binding emissions targets. Coming at a time when the government is perceived at home and abroad as politically weak, there is mounting concern among other G8 members and nongovernment organizations that the Lake Toya summit will end up being ineffective and contribute little to a broad agreement on a new climate change treaty by the end of 2009, as agreed at December's Bali conference.