“Japan’s change in government will bring a major shift to our climate change policies, through international negotiations for the future of human society, and I want to begin in a way that is said to have made a major contribution,’’ said Yukio Hatoyama, who is widely expected to be named prime minister next week when Parliament meets to choose Aso’s successor.
Hatoyama leads the Democratic Party of Japan, which won last month’s elections in a landslide, pushing Aso’s party from power for only the second time in more than 50 years.
Hatoyama said Japan would adopt the 25 percent goal, which was one of the Democrats’ campaign pledges, in a speech at an environmental forum in Tokyo.
The pledge comes ahead of a UN conference in Copenhagen, where world leaders hope to forge a new agreement to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, set to expire in 2012.
In the run-up to the conference, proposed levels of greenhouse gas reductions have been a major point of contention, pitting environmentalists who say drastic cuts are needed against business leaders who are wary of increased costs.
Martin Kaiser, climate policy director of Greenpeace International, called the Japanese pledge a “major step forward,’’ but it still fell short of the 40 percent reduction the group says is needed from industrialized countries.
“This is a clear-cut signal to major world leaders, especially President Obama,’’ Kaiser said by phone.
A bill approved by the US House of Representatives would cut emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020. It would mark a rare piece of climate change legislation in the United States, but the plan still falls short of many other industrial countries’ proposals, which use 1990 as a benchmark from which to cut emissions.
According to EU data, US output of greenhouse gases rose 15 percent from 1990 to 2005.
The bill, which must be approved by the Senate, is strongly opposed by some lawmakers, who have said it will raise energy costs and destroy jobs.
Japanese business leaders are also wary of significant reduction targets that they say could hurt their country’s competitiveness. A report released last month by the Keidanren, a powerful business lobby, stated that “emission cut targets should be balanced internationally.’’
The 27-nation European Union has agreed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 - a number that could be increased to 30 percent if other countries sign on.
