Regarding the June 11 article "Aso pledges emissions cut of 15% by '20": The issue of emissions is a global problem and will not be resolved by the actions of any one country. Until a new energy source is developed and implemented, the problem will continue. I believe that Japan, with the development of hydrogen, is on the right track and will probably be the first country to use noncarbon-based fuel on a national scale.
Targets have been developed by industrial nations to provide the illusion that something is being done. Nothing short of a new kind of fuel will really make a difference, and even after a new fuel is developed, we will have to deal with the residual effects of the industrial use of coal and oil for more than a hundred years. Critics are dishonest about the problems and so are those who profess that current targets are anything more than stopgap measures until some new energy source is developed.
It is not better to do nothing, but whatever is done should be focused on a new energy rather than on the allocation of resources to create the illusion that problems are being resolved. That the children of the world, at the very least, be able to breathe clean air seems like a reasonable request.