From AFP:
Japan will propose setting 2000 as the reference year for future greenhouse gas emission cuts in a bid to bring more countries aboard a post-Kyoto Protocol deal, a report said Monday.
The Kyoto Protocol requires major developed nations to slash emissions causing global warming by an average of five percent from 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will propose in a speech Saturday at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland to switch the base year for cuts to 2000 for after Kyoto's current obligations expire, Kyodo News reported.
Officials declined immediate comment on the report, which quoted unnamed government sources.
Kyodo News said Japan hoped the 2000 base would lower hurdles for fast-growing China and India, which have no obligations under the Kyoto Protocol and whose emissions shot up between 1990 and 2000.
But such a shift would likely encounter opposition from the European Union, the only major region whose emissions have gone down since 1990....MORE
