Japan's rejection of an international treaty on reducing pollution after 2012 is a tactic to put pressure on China and the United States to sign onto a new climate pact, according to Masahiko Horie, the country's ambassador for global environmental affairs.
Japan wants to encourage the world's two biggest emitters to take part in a global climate-protection system that would be agreed to before 2015 and to include both developing and industrialized nations, according to Horie. The nation will pursue voluntary policies rather than binding targets under the Kyoto Protocol beginning in 2013, he said.
"We'll continue our efforts even though we don't join the second commitment period," Horie said in an interview in Doha, where United Nations climate talks are entering their second week. "The only reason for that is try to give a push for the single international framework."
Envoys from more than 190 countries are negotiating a future climate-protection framework at the conference after the world's emissions surged to a record last year. The number of developed countries with binding pollution targets under the Kyoto treaty will shrink to about 30. Japan, Russia, Canada and New Zealand said they are not planning to adopt new goals after the first period expires this year.
Washington never ratified the treaty, which doesn't set enforceable goals for developing nations.