Japan urged to make ambitious contribution on climate

TOKYO - UN climate chief Christiana Figueres has urged Japan to set an ambitious goal of greenhouse gas emission cuts to contribute to a new framework for combating global warming from 2020, the Kyodo news agency reported on Sunday.

"My expectation of Japanese contributions is the same as my expectation from every other country," Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said in an interview with Kyodo on Saturday.

Parties to the convention are required to show their reduction targets by the end of March, 2015. The Japanese government on Friday started discussions on the matter.

Figueres also urged Japan to play an active role in the Green Climate Fund, which is expected to be one of the major topics at the 20th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC, or COP20, to be held in December in Peru. The fund is designed to facilitate the fight against global warming in developing countries.

"Financial contribution from Japan is absolutely critical," she said, noting that the world is "anxiously and eagerly waiting for the pledge from Japan".

Referring to billion-dollar contributions to the fund pledged by France and Germany each, Figueres said, "We will certainly expect Japan to be higher than that."

"The quicker the world moves toward a low-carbon economy, the quicker we move toward a high efficient economy," which will lead to more demand for Japanese exports, she said.