Japan pledges 25% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020

September 7, 2009

Yukio Hatoyama, Japan's Prime Minister-elect, has pledged that the country will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020.

The prime minister-elect told a conference on climate change on Monday that "we can't stop climate change just with our country setting an emissions target. We will also aim to create a fair and effective international framework by all major countries in the world."

The chief of the United Nations' symposium on climate change commended Hatoyama's plans. "With such a target, Japan will take on the leadership role that industrialised countries have agreed to take in climate change abatement," Yvo de Boer said to the conference.

Japan has the second largest economy in the world, and is the number-five emitter of greenhouse gases. It has recently come under international pressure to implement more strict emissions policies, being sixteen percent above the Kyoto Protocol.