G8 security steps hit as dangerous precedent
KYOTO — Their region having played host to three Group of Eight ministerial conferences over the past month, many in Kansai are breathing a sigh of relief and hoping the security measures that residents, and even summit participants, found excessive are now in the ...
Blair shifts focus on climate to Copenhagen conference
The Group of Eight leaders gathering next month in Hokkaido should not attempt to resolve all climate issues up to 2050 or even 2020, but instead focus on setting a clear course for an agreement at next year's U.N. conference in Copenhagen, former British ...
Land woes taking a back seat to CO2
While climate change has finally won the attention of world leaders, the United Nations is concerned about a lack of action on another major — and yet interlinked — global challenge: land degradation and desertification. A deteriorated atmosphere destroys land potential through drought, flooding and ...
Group of Eight leaders plan to back Japans' proposal for a sector-by-sector approach to slashing greenhouse gas emissions in a chairman's summary to be issued after the July 7-9 summit in Hokkaido, according to diplomatic sources. The G8 leaders are expected to agree that the ...
Consensus elusive ahead of climate meet
Time is running out for Japanese diplomacy — and possibly for the future of the Earth, too. A three-day meeting of 16 major green house gas emitting countries will start Friday in Seoul, the last major session before July's Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido, ...
Ambassador touts biofuel as climate change cure
Criticism that Brazil has prioritized the manufacture of biofuel at the expense of food production is preposterous and flies in the face of a superb solution for global warming, according to the Brazilian ambassador to Japan. While the world's biggest producer of sugar cane-based ethanol ...
Soaring prices pose challenge to G8 finance chiefs
Finance chiefs from the Group of Eight countries are expected to discuss Friday in Osaka how their economies can tame the soaring oil and food prices battering businesses and consumers around the world. But analysts and government officials say there are no effective measures in ...
